Mall Culture in India

chillibreeze writer — Vinod Desai

"You need new clothes." said my wife as she rummaged through my wardrobe one lazy Saturday morning.
"Honey, I am quite comfortable with what I wear."

"I don't care. You need some good T-shirts."

"I don't need more T-shirts. Besides I would probably look different
and a lot cooler and I am afraid that's not the man you originally
fell for."

"Spare me the threat. We are spending the weekend buying you some clothes."

And so off we were to the latest mall in town. I am personally not a fan of shopping in malls. The roads leading to them are always crowded and you go through eight floors of parking space through a winding driveway before you eventually end up with a spot so tight, you would have to climb out of the boot to get out of your car. It surprises me that so many people are already in there shopping, making merry, and watching movies at 11 on a Saturday morning. For some reason, Indians love malls.

As we approached the road leading to the mall, I realized the whole darn thing had been made into a one-way to handle the traffic the mall gets.
"I am sure they will consider having an elevated expressway on this road in a few years," I told the wife, who sat fiddling with the radio stations.
"Everyone wants to look and feel good Vinod. There's no point blaming them. It's a totally different issue that I married an anomaly."
"That's not true. I do try to look good and I at least look fresh."
"You haven't let me wash your jeans in two full weeks. You've worn
them on 4 different occasions besides going to work in them for 10
days."
"Ok. I shall rephrase. I at least care to look good."
"You have a leaf in your hair and a hair on your shirt. And the car
looks like it's undergoing a scientific dirt test."
"I am driving. I would've defended myself but I am a little busy saving lives."

After gracefully maneuvering my slender size 32-waist between my car and the next, we walked into the splendor. There were enough lights there to make a moth dizzy and the sale signs potent enough to set in a mild cardiac arrest in my wife.

"Look at all these bargains!" she said while still holding enough air in her lungs to disturb global wind patterns.
"It's very hard to ignore them honey. They are all I see."
People of all ages, colors, sexes seemed to be in a merry making frenzy which was hard to explain. The teenagers especially were looking uber cool and some had spent a lot of effort in trying to look so.

I think at some level malls provide to our large singles base a courtship opportunity like no other. Where else would you find so many women and men enclosed in such a small area? While most guys would get slapped on their faces for gawking at women in any other place, malls somehow seem to be an exception. Maybe because the women seem distracted by the sales signs.

It's a place where even introverts come to get noticed. Most of them are dressed to kill. The perception of what classifies as 'dressed to kill' is a little distorted of course. Some are dressed to kill fashion and anything which has a sense of it. Guys wearing denim jackets on tight jeans, and girls wearing leather in a city searing on the outside because they know the malls' central air-conditioning will keep them cool. A mall allows for its own weather. And, as a direct consequence to it, its own fashion sense.

Most of this frenzy is attributed to the huge rise of the middle class in India. Suddenly, everyone is eating packaged food and most houses now have a can opener. Tetra pack has replaced paper and polythene as the predominant component in kitchen garbage. I read a theory once that the progress of a nation is directly proportional to the amount of waste it produces and India seems to be catching up. I know very few families who actually shop now at the friendly neighborhood grocery stores. They always head to the malls. Besides fulfilling the need for supplies, malls add the entertainment bit in them. So, if you
happen to change your mind, dump all your groceries in the car and get
going to a mid-day movie.

There's a reason malls are so popular. People have the need to show that they earn well and it is reflected in everything they do. Whether it's the clothes they wear or the car they drive. Mankind's need to impress is inherent and so deeply entrenched, it's hard to separate the two. Anything non-branded and non-exclusive is passé. It's either designer wear or branded wear. Where else to get all of these under one roof? You could spend a whole day at the mall. Drop in early to cash in on the end of season sale, complement it with a lunch at a
pretentious restaurant or the food court, have coffee by the coffee bar and wrap it up with a movie. It's a day well spent for most.

For the families on the stepping rung of middleclass, malls seem to offer them an insight on the life they could eventually live. In all my visits to the mall not once have I not encountered a family, which seems to be trying its luck with the escalator. Grannies refusing to step on it, mothers insisting that they carry their children and children in general crying or being terribly excited about climbing the escalator. For most, it's their Everest. Such families will always be found; it's the birth of a new customer for the mall and the birth of a new consumer for the nation. It's a phase that many families go through. As incomes rise, even the mighty escalator is humbled. Welcome to big city life.

For most women I know, shopping is as close they could go to undertaking a therapy and I am not exaggerating this in any sense of the word. Whether it’s being depressed about their bosses, their parents or their love lives, shopping seems to work wonders. They wait for the month to end so their coffers are re-filled and no sooner do their palms begin to itch to sign on a credit card swipe. Most retailers handling a good line of women's necessities exhaust their swipe machine paper roll faster than the time it would take if it was set on fire. There comes a time in every country's growth period where retail seems to be the big thing around and malls are the thoroughbred steeds of retail.

Back to my wife and me, by the time we stepped out of the mall, the Saturday sun had long set and we had enough bags to fill up the back seat. Besides the T-shirts I 'so badly needed', we bought clothes for the wife, curtains, sheets, his and hers shoes, pashminas, towel sets, groceries, a watch for her brother, a few books, a painting and a carpet. We then topped it off with a coffee mug, which had her and my faces on it.

It would be a crying shame after all this, if I didn't win that Audi which was up for grabs in the mall's lucky draw. I already seem to have paid up my first big installment.

Chillibreeze's disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article.

Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Vinod writes for chillibreeze.

>> Read more articles written by Chillibreeze writers:

More resources for Writers on Chillibreeze.com

Chillibreeze offers Indian writers the opportunity to work on customer projects. We are also India’s biggest writer network and a one-stop shop for Indian writers and editors. The writers’ section on Chillibreeze offers freelance writers and editors a variety of tools to advance their careers. Resources for writers include:

Assessment of your writing, editing and proofreading skills

Writing courses

Expert Feedback on your article

An opportunity to promote yourself on our website

Top websites for Indian writers

Tips and resources for Indian freelancers

Book Publishing services

And more………………..

Explore our writers’ section using the links on our left-hand side menu.