The ‘sale’ season

    

Nothing on this planet entices Indians more than the sales.The happiness index of women definitely is a notch higher. To find your favorite brand’s showroom having sales notching upto Bradman’s test average…that’s all what we all crave for. It’s the time to throw all your hard earned savings down the drain to purchase commodities without which survival is easily possible. Mini orgasms occur as soon as a ‘Levis’ or a ‘Madame’ is cited. ‘Mango’ , ‘FCUK’, ’Woodland’ are looked upon like landmarks in world history and can put brands like the ‘NASA’ and the ‘Harvard’ under pressure…that is what sales means to us.

During the season you can easily find half of Delhi hopping from Lajpat Nagar to Sarojini Nagar to GIP to CP to Gurgaon …(not exhaustive by any stretch of imagination). To find your favorite apparel of your favorite brand for half the price (which is actually not the case :P) is indeed an achievement. Parents get hyper with excitement to find ‘branded’ clothes for their chunnus and munnus even if half of the clothes manufactured in the world are stuffed into their wardrobes.

‘Beta, yeh le lo, ‘Levis’ ki hai!     

‘No, ma, I already have 10 of them’

‘Denims ki bhi koi limit hoti hai, aage kaam aa jaayenge, 65% off hai, sirf  weekend tak’

‘WTF’

Another citation-

‘Monte Carlo ka hi lena hai, I’ve heard it’s the best and you know what its 40% off.’

‘Armani is  better’

 ‘But yaar, us par sirf 20% hai’

Brand is of supreme importance.There are so many shops luring innocent customers for their pragmatic benefits.Although, people are spoilt for choices. The choices made here are given more significance than those given while choosing your careers or colleges. Herds of people gather in showrooms resembling a scene ala ‘Kumbh Mela’ where instead of the river, brands are worshipped.

 The Aunty’s shop till they drop while Uncle’s stare in dismay to the ‘Monte Carlo’s and the ‘Pepe’s responsible for depleting the weight of their wallets and the depth of their pockets. Mummys shortlisting 25 sweaters for their sons to choose from and sons still not able to re-shortlist to find the sweater of his dreams is a common scenario. To me, a perennial hater of such sales, it seems like a disorder. People might find good bargains, but I ask, ‘why not go digital?’

You have great sites giving apparently the same discounts at a click of the mouse, what is the need to spoil a weekend over a piece of cloth which you win after several battles in a showroom? Shopping is meant to be a pleasant experience, isn’t it?. Some even call it therapeutic. Somehow, I fail to see the therapy in hoards of people queuing up to first get into the stores that have an ocean of people already inside, then having to hunt for something worthwhile in the unsightly piles of stuff. And then to make payment, again get into queues that are several light years long. Therapeutic? My foot. 

Follow my advice regarding online shopping.You’re definitely going to gain from it and would thank me later.I accept cash, with a heavy heart.

Udit Bhatia 

Electronics and Communication Engineering

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University