Depression set in early on Saturday night as I started reading Gabriela Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. What if I die an old maid like Amaranta or Remedios the Beauty? What if I end up an old woman as heartless as Colonel Aureliano Buendia? On Sunday morning I again ploughed through the novel. It was tedious even though it did provide a picture of Spanish life, its customs, its supersitions and its fears.
By the time I managed to get over with Marquez, I was exhausted. I slept and slept to feel better. It did help but the fact that I was horribly broke didn't. It spelt going out nowhere. The only hope was a cheque I had deposited to be encashed. I checked it. Zilch. Then I happened to check my other account. And my day was made. There was the lumpsome allowance from office in it which I had expected a day later. So there I was at Sarojini Nagar market which has to be the best flea market, at least in Delhi, Bombay and Calcutta.
Unbelievable cheap stuff lay for the taking. Of course I had to bargain and use my nagging powers. But when I got a flouncy polka dotted skirt for just Rs 35, my eyes nearly popped out. Something that brought a smile to the person who was standing at the stall chatting with the seller. And I shopped and I shopped. Even though it was hot and I really didn't need much. Compulsive shopping I guess. But it didn't hurt the pocket much. Just within Rs 1,000 I had as much as 10 small bags stuffed with lots of pretty skirts and tops.
The first time I had been to Sarojini was with a friend of my dad's. R uncle took us around the city when I came for admission to IIMC. When we went to Sarojini it was already evening and I could not make out much. Except for rows of shops with clothes popping out of every nook and cranny, the owners calling out and R uncle insisting that you could get anything for a steal here. But the actual time I remember falling in love with the market was when we used to go from IIMC in a huge gang. Times when we used to wander there for hours and times when we used to return to the hostel piled up in an autorickshaw that would refuse to go uphill with all us.
And as I walked alone through the alleys there, I felt so at home. Now I can boast that I know it like I know my slab of Lindt's dark chocolate. Once upon a time though I wondered at how you could find your way through the maze there. Funny that it's been four years almost and I am still here.
Back at home trying on the clothes made me feel even better. Finally a round of rearranging the wardrobe to hold everything that I bought and I could feel all the depression of Marquez evaporating like it was never there. The other high point was munching on my favourite Mc Donald's burger and demolishing a mud pie while watching Desperate Housewives.
The start might not have been great but the end was.
21 comments:
There are so many similarities between us that it’s freaky!
This is exactly the way I’d have behaved too if I were u!
I had wanted to go to IIMC too.
And shopping at sarojini always makes me so happy! [ I love having loads of shopping bags, cos it makes me feel like I’ve shopped a lot :o) ]
We’re both kinda at the same point in life I guess.
I miss Delhi.
Sonia: You have done it before na? Come to Delhi. Retail therapy I tell you is magic for us women:-)
Retail therapy's the best! And polka dots are the hot summer trend, so you'll do great. I've been looking in vain for a kickass polka dot dress.
I never used to shop much in Sarojini Nagar. I lived in West Delhi and my favourite shopping destinations were CP, Janpath and Karol Bagh. But I've been there a few times and it's great fun, just the kind of place that'll make you forget all this spinster talk and have fun!
i like polka dots.
Nothing like some good old-fashioned retail therapy to banish the blues. Now I get my kicks from shopping for my 11-month old son - he has far more clothes than he should for someone who grows out of stuff in 3 months.
Retail therapy is just the greatest thing- what else is there that gives that instant kick?
:)
That's legal, anyway.
Sounds like a fab day, glad it picked up!
Thalassa: Say what I picked up a polka dotted pink capri too:-) Talk about them being the trend. They were all over the ramp during fashion week as well.
You lived in West Delhi? That's like so far for me. Only twice did I go there for Shaggy and Sting concerts, after which I never thought I would reach home in South Delhi.
Nish: But I haven't seen guys wearing them much;)They have that vintage look about them that also spells out fun no? I remember this black and white polka dotted frock with a red bow that I wore when I was a kid...wonder where it is now.
Rohini: I think retail therapy is something that never fails to cheer up anybody...And that's a lucky son.
Imogen: Yeah right. An instant kick that is not bad or illegal. In my books, that's the only thing that can give my urge to gorge on food a kick:-)
I am yet to meet a girl who doesn't go gaga at the prospect of going to SN (provided she's been there once of course)! I grew up around the place, and a visit there always meant a new toy... so it does evoke fond memories :)
I finished reading "Love in the times of Cholera" a few days back n I quite love Garcia's writing. I'll need more motivation before I can pick up 'Solitude, because as you said, it is exhausting. Especially if one starts to map things to one's life and send one's thought up into the orbit.
I need some cheering up... perhaps I'll go and buy myself some chocolate !
Whew! You do manage to have a great time in the end, somehow or the other. ;)
First rain: You will never meet that girl;) Yeah Marquez's writing is lucid I must admit. Perhaps after a few weeks I will pick up Love in the times of Cholera and keep a bar of Lindt handy.
Couchpotato: Welcome back:-)
You were broke, but the moment you had some money you went shopping for clothes. Ah, the priorities of the young :-p
Jay: Well what else would you expect me to do? Except blow it up in a bookshop or eat everything I lay my eyes on:-)
u know i havent had the guts to go to sarojini after the blasts - i know, i know. i'm a wuss.
Thats one is a nice read though it sapped a lot of my patience...
Ya, I thought OHYOS would never end. And I haven't read 'Love ... Cholera' yet. Just don't have the patience for it. Just for the record, after finishing OHYOS, I didn't shop, I slept...and slept.
Essar: That's ok. If you are a shopaholic like I am don't let it stop you.
Grey shades: Oh at least I have not got any brickbats for voicing my feelings about it. After I finished reading it, friend P who had lent me the book and gone gaga about it, confessed that it is a 'bit' tedious.
Toe knee: Uh oh you didn't read my post did you mate? I too slept and slept and slept:-)
hi AB! during my two years in delhi, i loved going to s.nagar for the same reasons you have written :) but for a foodie like me, i used to love to hang out and eat golgappas and chole-kulche too...i have not found such delicious stuff anywhere outside delhi.sigh!
Sunrayz: Hey...Ok that's one thing I don't like in Delhi. The golgappas. I know I know that you will probably roll your eyes at me, but the golgappas here are too mitha. Or maybe because I am used to the tangy spicy phuchkas of Calcutta that I can't bring myself to like these.
Well I'm glad you like the book and looks like your friend P was right after all! Have you read Khalid Hosseni?
No. I want to though. Heard a lot about him.
yeah you should try that but not when you are in a lousy mood and depressed...
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