Midweek ruminations – all for a reason
Sushmita Bose -
Thursday, November 20, 2008 5:17 PM
People, I am going to be out of town (and by that I mean, out of Dubai) for the next few days. I leave tomorrow, and am back only on Tuesday, so I won't be able to provide the Sunday dose. I'm going to now try and serve you a mix of midweek fare.
It's getting cold in Dubai. I had no idea this place had such serious winters. Since I hadn't carried any warm clothes with me, I had to go shopping to Burjuman Mall for woollies and a nice red-and-blue checked jacket. Some friends have been telling me that the downturn has hit the glitzy markets here too - and in a bad way. Somehow it's tough to imagine Dubai without the shopping mania. There <were> quite a few people hanging out at the Burjuman Mall, I noticed. Maybe they were just window-shopping, and I wondered how much the footfalls:sales ratio would be.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend and his wife were passing via Dubai, on their way back from Egypt. The first place they visited was the Carrefour store at the Deira City Centre, another popular mall. Discount stores zindabad! They always seem to flourish, downturn or no downturn. My friend and his significant other spent more than a half-a-day at Carrefour: HE ambling along with disjointed body movements, a resigned look haunting his bespectacled eyes, SHE a bundle of excitement as she flung zillions Scotch-Brite sponges and scouring pads, Olay night creams, and Sunsilk shampoos into the shopping trolley. And soaps. Lots of Doves: green, pink, white (do they have any more colours? If they do, they should get in touch with my friend's wife).
"Why are you buying stuff that you get in India?" I wondered. "Why don't you get dates or camel impersonations - or serious designer labels -- instead?"
"Suzy," my friend tsk-ed (I don't know why a few people still insist on calling me Suzy - how I hate it, although I used to have mail ID that was suzyprincess!), "I've spent half my life with this woman - and I haven't been able to convince her that she is, at times, you know, irrational. You think you'll be able to? By the way, I want to take home a belly dancer," he hadn't clearly lost his sense of inane humour.
"The Sunsilk shampoo is for falling hair," his wife said almost angrily. "My hair's falling. The Dove soaps are for the domestic helps. You know, they also ‘expect' gifts."
"But you can get them Dove soaps from the shop next to your place."
"It's NOT the same thing," this time, she glared at me. "THESE are from Dubai. When I tell them they are from phoren, just imagine how happy they will be."
What about the Scotch-Brites and the jars of Olay, I persisted weakly. "Oh, just shut up, will you?" she hollered. I did.
At the end of the shopping expedition, my friend slapped his credit card on to the counter. "She buys, I pay," he winked at me, looking really happy that the ordeal was over. "Story of my life."
Like my friend's wife who could barely contain her excitement in Carrefour, I too am in a similar state. For entirely different reasons. I am going to Delhi in the beginning of December. I've never been so thrilled about going to Delhi. It's only for a couple of days, but I'M GOING HOME. HOORAY!
So I had this little tiff with my father on the subject of homes and hometowns. Even before I came to Dubai on 17th September, one of the forms that had been emailed to me (for me to fill up and send back) was all about penning down the name of my ‘hometown'. "I hope you are putting down Calcutta," my father told me officiously.
"Certainly not," I said. "I'm putting down Delhi."
"What nonsense," he snarled. "Calcutta is home."
"No way," I snarled back. "Delhi is home. I've even bought an apartment there." Oh alright, the apartment is not really housed in Delhi, it's just across the border, around the corner.
My father looked gloomy, but at least there was no more argument over hometown definitions after that.
Folks, I'm off now, the taxi's waiting downstairs.