Whether it’s a gloomy day, lazy Sundays, Monday blues or thank God it’s Friday night, what always cheers me up is going for a shopping stroll. I was born and brought up in Varanasi, the spiritual capital of India, my paternal home was situated in the heart of the city, Godowlia and do you know what most beautiful thing about this place is, the streets of Varanasi never sleep, it is always lively, bright and blissful. Whether it is late night, afternoons, and the streets of Godowlia are always crowded with shoppers, commuters who come from far off places to see the beauty of local bazaars. The lanes, the roads are always dolled up with people running hither and tither in search of goods and to bargain at their best with the shopkeepers. So, you see why I’m a shopaholic.
The most exciting part of shopping is bargaining. Surely, this trick cannot work in a showroom, but local vendors do provide this privilege to get the best out of them. The most occupied market which I have visited till now is Sarojini Nagar in Delhi; I did not believe my eyes. Delhi is known for its busy streets, but Sarojini Nagar stalls are the king of all.
Hub of shoppers:
India has been a hub of shoppers since time immemorial. The diverse landscape, lifestyle, taste and tradition of people give every street a unique genre for shopping. If you want to shop cosy and warm woollens-shop at the hills of Himalaya, for bright elegant glass work- shop at the streets of Agra, for leather products-shop in Kanpur, for that eye catching Rajasthani Lehnga Choli- shop in Jaipur, for colourful, decorated bangle- shop the streets of Firozabad. There’s a never-ending list of streets for every commodity at the price and of best quality. Even the Nightingale of India- Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, couldn’t abstain the euphoria of Indian markets which she has beautifully described in the poem, “In the Bazaars of Hyderabad”. The poem goes on and on about describing the things sold in the market of Hyderabad and how enchanting it seems just by reading it.
Now days, online shopping have become a new buzz of the town, sitting at the luxury of my home, on the click of a button, I can not only display my favourite thing but also view its quality, compare its price, check its durability and take a real time feedback from its previous customers. Magic! Isn’t? It has made easy even for the customer at far off places to buy what they want. But everything comes with a drawback; many times customers misuse the leverage of online shopping by using the product for some time and then returning. This practise should be given a check; this not only hampers the company’s image but also is an unethical practise on the part of the customer.
