Mandai V/S Malls

A nice trip to Mandai reminds you what veggie shopping is all about. No no, those malls cannot make up for it.

As much as my mother loves it, I’ve somehow always had a problem with malls. To begin with, I have to look for a parking space in some shoddily-lit basement where anyone can stab a person and get away with it. Once I’m inside, the air-conditioner makes me sick and the lighting hurts my eyes. No, really. When I go to the vegetable section, I see discoloured veggies stacked in plastic containers (maybe that’s where ‘oh you look like a vegetable’ comes from). Then I take a bag (yeah, plastic again), fill and weigh veggies on a scale whose display is barely readable. And its not all that fun moving around that stupid, oversized trolley round and round the place, wasting precious time. And I somehow can’t help giving a spiteful look to the person at counter when he removes a plastic bag from his stash (carry your own bags, people). Besides, I end up buying a lot more than what I’d planned on, so where’s my saving buddy?

And look at good ol’ Mandai! The moment I am in, the clatter tells me that I’ve arrived at a ‘market’. After all, what is a market without the hustle and bustle? There, I can pick from heaps of vegetables, nice and fresh. Because I’ve been going there for many years, I know where I can get the best produce. The sellers don’t offer plastic bags willingly; so I make it a point to carry my own. And most importantly, I can bargain. Show me one mall where you can do that!

But with more and more malls coming up at every corner of the road, I wonder if this practice is fast disappearing. I wonder if I’ll wake up to a day where the bhaajiwala at my nukkad will be history. I wonder if my kids will even know what a bhaajiwala is!