I spend my Sunday browsing through Sarojini market. My only
day off. A much cherished day of my week
and a little bit of time for just me. Nobody else. But I spend my Sunday browsing the market
because two friends wanted to shop. And I like them, so I spend time with them.
Sarojini is amazing, stalls seemingly around every
corner. Enough ice cream for the masses –
and yes, the masses loves ice cream in this heat. Great bargains and weird
people, so overall, definitely a good bet.
However, Sarojini comes with the best part of the delhi
population on a Sunday. Enough people to
make any reasonable person doubt whether there will be anything left to
buy. Whether you’re looking for
underwear, saree’s, shoes, clothing or accessories – you’ll find it. Chances of them running out of stock – slim.
The afternoon sun baked on my arms as we walked in. A pretty hot 38 degrees on this sunny summer’s
day. But if you can carry a 20kg
backpack, haggle for your late night ride home and eat food whose name you can’t
pronounce- you can survive the market. Right?!
We work our way through the aisles of the market. Up and
down. Push, chat, no, please leave now,
you want to look at that? A couple of
hrs later, the heat had gotten the best of us and we walked into a shoe store, because
they had air-con. Yes, we did that.
Completely unashamed.
Hours later, I had brought starry scarfes, bangles and a
beautiful leather bag. Serious
strategies were followed to get the bag: haggle, walk away, return, not looking
happy, budgeting – we did all of it. The
smell of the bag, now makes the effort completely worth it.
Hot, tired, over it and completely happy we sank into a
booth at a restaurant much later. They
shopped: gifts, scarfs, more leather bags, shirts and loads of water.
Our conclusion – amazing day, but its emotionally exhausting
pushing through the crowd to see everything, keeping track of team members (yes
– otherwise they disappear!), haggling your way to a decent price and pushing
off all of the unwanted sunglasses/ watches/ belts that gets pushed into your
face.
Much like social media…
You have to engage with others to have the returned effect
on your blog/ wall/ photo… Whatever. When
it was only facebook, it was easier. Now
you have to maintain your own profile, one for friends and one for business
networking, one for photos, one for words, one for the man on the moon.
It becomes work to seem interesting, knowledgeable and
(somehow) still yourself – although a better version on all of these platforms. Its an art of knowing when to tag, vent, keep
quiet. Share, relate, perform, be, produce.
How come we have to spend so much energy being likeable on a
platform? And since whatever you say/ do on any of these platforms will be
there forever – forgetting someone, nope.
Not that easy either.
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