My encounters with French-2 – where I got ‘Oui’-fied!

I was kinda racking my brains about what best to buy for my little nephew, niece and cousin (yeah when you have the (mis)fortune of being the first-born in the family on the paternal and maternal sides, you end up having cousins who’re as old (young) as your nephews/ nieces!) . Yeah, so I wanted to buy something nice for the li’l ones, at the same time I didn’t want to splurge on something which they would soon outgrow and would thus get wasted. So I thought I’d buy some stuff which could be really useful (atleast for a year or two) and which we wouldn’t normally spend on, back home. Well, this was at the back of mind all the time I went into any shop here.

So my eyes scoured for this something when I was at one of the touristy places last weekend and was taking a walk around the neighbourhood – there were a lot of small shops with ‘SALE’ written across them and that made me happy! 😀 I found one shop which seemed to have some stuff for the infants and kids, I went in to take a look. It was a sale alright – there were heaps of all kinds of clothes, jackets and other wearables and people were pulling at it, obviously wanting what someone else had in hand. I spotted these cute little winter jackets – complete with a hood, mittens for hands and feet and I thought – this is perfect! I’ll buy three of these and my gift’s ready! Little did I realize, it wasn’t going to be as simple as that.

Firstly, it really was a heap and there was no separate heap for the jackets. And since it was for kids, I had to check the sizes before choosing them – the tiny little tag which says – 6 months, 9 months, 12 months etc. and which is not very easy to spot. Now two of these kids are nearly a year old and the girlie is 6 months. Apart from the different sizes, I had to be careful about the colours I chose – I couldn’t end up with pretty pinks for the boys and dull browns for the girl! So my task became all the more complicated. Well, let’s say, after 45 minutes of non-stop scouring and pulling out tiny hands and legs (of clothes, of course!), I ended up with 3 jackets – I partly lost patience after that and partly decided – a gift is a gift, what they do with it later is surely left to the parents!

So then, with my arms loaded with these three heavy jackets, I walked deeper into the store between aisles filled with clothes of all kinds – for women mainly. That’s when I realized how big the shop actually was and how many people it held! I picked my way amongst them and finally managed to reach the billing counter. A woman of African origin, said ‘Oui‘ with a question-mark writ all over her face. I pointed to my armload and pointed to her machine and said bill. She again said ‘Oui‘ and pointed towards something behind my back. I turned my head and saw – a serpentine queue whose end seemed to be lost somewhere in the other corner of the store – all women waiting with basket-loads of clothes they’d bought to be billed on that Saturday afternoon! They were snaking up to the counter in a round-about fashion, which I’d failed to notice. I caught my jaw from hitting the ground and quickly went past atleast thirty ladies to stand in the queue.

And then started the ordeal of waiting.  It being a ladies queue there were a few cat-fights here and there, about people forming invalid sub-queues in the wrong directions – but nothing which wasn’t settled amicably in a few minutes. As I stood between that throng of French women who were chattering away in a language which I couldn’t remotely understand, I felt lost! I did contemplate leaving behind the jackets and coming away, but then thought the better of it – having invested nearly an hour of my time, I wanted to buy it that day. Standing in that queue I realized why men tend to get annoyed when they shop with us. Those ladies, even as they stood waiting, wouldn’t let a piece of cloth alone – they checked each and every piece of clothing in every counter of every aisle – irrespective of the colour or size or pattern or anything. They wanted to take it in their hands and see it for themselves! There were times when I wanted to scream – aunty! please move on! I want to get these 3 damn things billed and get away, can you please let me go?! But I did nothing of the sort, you don’t go to a foreign country and voice your strong opinion amongst a group of people whose language you don’t understand! I grit my teeth and counted sheep as the line woefully slowly moved on. It was a good half hour before my turn came, I paid the cash and rushed out.

Phew! It really had been years since I’d shopped for anything like this by standing in such a long queue! For all the trouble I took, those babies better coo and be nice about their jackets! 😉

Of glass show-rooms etc.

We were on our way back from an evening-show viewing of Luck by Chance. That’s when I saw the huge, new & upcoming Kalyani Motors showroom on the Ring road. The hubby had already told me about it a couple of days back. The first thought I had was – this will be such a perfect target for the unruly mobs.

As it is with most showrooms, especially in the automotive sector, the entire front facade of the complete structure was in glass – right from the top at the second level till the ground floor entrance. Long, wide, crystal-clear glass sections used to provide an attractive, continuous, eye-catching view to the public.

When I voiced my misgivings about the showroom with its strategic location at the Ring-road and Mysore road junction, the hubby’s reaction was – ‘Of course, what else do you expect? What is the point in having a car-showroom with all the cars on display behind cement and mortar walls?’ That clearly made my point sound completely silly. Nevertheless I persisted with my line of defense.

I am not asserting that the cars should be completed housed behind cement and stone structures. They can have a certain section of their showroom – probably one part of the front facade at the ground level, for the display of the cars while the rest of it can be a normal brick and mortar structure. That way even if some untoward mob incident occurs, the damages caused will be minimal. It wouldn’t be as heartbreaking a scene as seeing the entire 3-level frontal portion come crashing down, as an errant throng throws stones and gleefully watches. This has happened often enough in our city – the Cauvery issue, the days around Dr.Raj’s kidnapping and death, are instances that come to mind easily.

But the hubby was insistent that this would mean disaster for the company’s car sales. ‘It is these showrooms that attract people – that puts dreams into the eyes of the common man, makes him believe that he too can one day be the proud owner of the bright coloured beauty on display in the windows’; he countered. I wasn’t convinced – ‘oh, come on! It’s not as if a guy looks at this showroom window and decides to buy the car!’

 I believe, that for most of us Indians, the car is still a luxury. It’s like buying a home – an investment into which a lot of thought and life’s savings goes in. People who buy cars (I am not talking of the elite and the rich/ landlord families/ high society folks here) essentially plan it out – they first decide if and why they need a car, thereafter depending on their requirements they chalk out the features that they want, do a survey of the cars in the market and also those which might be out on the roads in a few months – they look at the mileage, the body built, size, engine-power, performance, efficiency, maintenance-costs, colours, accessories, offers, discounts and of course extent of the hole that it will burn in their pockets. They sift through brochures/ web-sites, do the rounds of the various dealers weighing the offers given by each, explore and study the loan details, get the consent of the family and finally choose an auspicious date for the delivery after they are completely satisfied with all the above points and believe that they are getting the best deal.

Of course, amidst all this, the shining car in the showroom too does play its cameo role. It does get a prospective buyer’s attention – just like a lot of other things do – the ad on TV that tugs at your heart-strings, the neighbour’s  slightly altered cocky attitude observed only after he’s a proud car-owner, the colleague’s bragging, the wife’s subtle hints, the children’s nagging, the hope in the elderly parents’ eyes, the soot and smoke while waiting on the scooter at a crowded traffic signal, the longing for the sense of accomplishment and security that comes only by driving one’s own car. Well, like all these – the showroom display is but a cog in the wheel – not the wheel itself – is line of my argument. What say you all?

The blasts and the aftermath

I had been mulling over these thoughts the past few days and Anamika’s this post has driven me to put my thoughts down today, in black and white. On the day of the blasts and after, I was shocked by the reactions and behaviour of the people around me. It was disgusting – the air and attitude with which the news was received and handled. The thankful fact that the blasts were low intensity ones, was being turned into the butt of jokes saying – it was only firecrackers that had been set off!! Was it a pseudo-brave frontal in the face of fear? I did not pretend to understand.
When confronted with the question – “please pray tell me how on earth is it remotely funny to be bandied about so?”, they offered crass rejoinders saying situations such as these didn’t warrant panic and it was important to keep the atmosphere light and lively!

Lively, my foot! Were they even thinking of that poor lady who lost her life for the sole reason that she happened to step out of her house, to pay a visit to the hospital for her husband’s treatment, on that fateful day? What about those innocent bystanders and pedestrians who happened to be at the spot? What if it had been one of you or your family or friends? – I seethed to ask.

The air was one of nonchalance because it hadn’t been major blasts. Major? Major?? You mean, like how it happened in Mumbai and Hyderabad and Jaipur and scores of other cities, which haven’t been lucky enough to have escaped the terror radar? Did you want it to be of a similar magnitude, leading to loss of hundreds of unsuspecting lives? Why look far? One didn’t have to wait too long. Isn’t that what happened in Ahmedabad just a day later? Were you waiting for our city to be home to such headlines? Would that be serious enough to make you sit up and take notice?!! Whom are you kidding?! – my mind screamed

Notwithstanding the lack of gravity, the cruel apathy was distressing. Check these sample conversations –

Sample #1
Me to a colleague – did you hear about the blasts? Isn’t it so unfortunate?
Colleague – yeah! Terrible! And we have to come to office tomorrow for work even though it’s the weekend. If some more blasts occur then I won’t come! May be another one or two small blasts might occur!
Me – ??$@#$#@!!

Sample #2
A colleague in the cab, talking over the phone – hey, did you hear about the latest blast? It seems it was near the Gopalan mall… yeah, it has been happening since morning… looks like it might continue till tonight or tomorrow!!
My thoughts – hello??? Can we at least be thankful for it not being worse and hope that the situation improves?

And the matter doesn’t end there… there’s more. As we read the reports pouring in about the shock waves that the blasts had sent across the city, the rain gods vented their ire too. When I made a remark to the effect – the panic buttons pressed and the offices closing early coupled with the rains, the traffic on the roads would be nightmarish; my colleague had this to say –

The traffic, the rains, with no diesel and no power, this is s***! And gosh! My bike is of XXX registration, I better get home early; one never knows what the people here will resort to!!

I was benumbed and speechless with shock, anger and hurt. Was this what my beloved city had come to signify and represent?

Looking at all the above, I can’t help but wonder – if this is the kind of attitude/ behaviour/ demeanour we, as Bangaloreans, were gonna arm ourselves with; how can we even imagine or plan ahead for handling any similar strikes/ disaster in the future?

Is there still hope? Someone please tell me, all is not lost!! 😦