Valley Chai

a little trust, a ton of service, and one suffocating crowd after another.

it may be the widespread spend-culture, plethora of brands or may be my myopic view of the few places i frequent. as my professor at IIMB puts it, india has 350M middle-class population in india that can afford most of the good brands out there. and with GDP growth rate pegged at 9%, nobody is feeling bashful about spending what they earn.

and it shows. any decent retail outlet worth it’s food court is packed to the brim 24×7. i am not talking sunday afternoon packed. i am talking december 24th packed.

the seven-eleven shopping experience is supplanted by the neighborhood pharmacy or the ‘kirana’ stores. they stock amazing amount of merchandise in a very small place. just gotta ask him. if he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it to you by end of the day, devlivered to your door. no receipt, no sales tax. only thing missing is beer.

the regular groceries can also be bought via the safeway experience in outlets like spar supermarket and about 10 other clones. they just cost a lot more and have a nice overall experience., including the aforementioned long checkout lines. we indulge in it a few times. regardless of where you buy the fruits in particular are spectacular. they are fresh, ready to eat and totally delicious. i’ve discovered the true taste of fruits after coming here - they’re now my preferred mid-night snack.

as far as eating out goes, you have the now-familiar range of ultra-expensive to ultra-cheap. the breakfast stuff is best at the ‘darshini’ or ’sagar’ outlets. cheap, hot and pretty taste most of the time. i heard that women typically don’t go there. the city has all kinds of cuisine within a 20 min driving distance. you’d have to put up with some creative liberties with the authenticity of cuisines you expect. as they say here.. “swalpa adjust maadi”.

while looking for the furniture getting settled in, we pretty much went with the two kinds - the mythical shivaji nagar area (any auto fellow would know where it is) for the mid-range furniture. we got our guest bed set there. we shopped at lifestyle (at richmond soolay circle), @ home (near forum) and the home town (on outer ring road at marathahalli) for the living room furniture. pricey, i know. but if you want good looking furniture, you’d have to go to one of these places.

and speaking of door-step service, the “ironbox” man is awesome. he picks up the clothes, presses and delivers them back to you by evening.

all said and done, the best shopping experience is still with the vegetable vendor that comes calling punctually at 7am. he is polite, on time, reasonably priced, and you feel good supporting the hard-working man.

and finally some rules of thumb: don’t pay until someone asks you to pay and until you’ve received the goods in your hands. don’t give an advance for anything. for big ticket purchases, don’t be bashful to ask for discounts and deals. most good deals happen ‘off the books’, so don’t be anal about it. it’s part of the economy/culture. returns pretty much aren’t a norm. so feel free to open the boxes to inspect the goods before a purchase. for electrical items, the shop keeper even plugs in and demonstrates to you that it works before you buy. for many services, there isn’t a need to tip - but tip them.