Mall crawling in Chennai.

Last weekend I was at Chennai and decided to do some mall crawling. Well, I would not have
done it if I had a choice, but I had some Gift Vouchers that I got by redeeming my Amex
reward points and I needed to use them before they expired.

So, Saturday noon post-lunch I am off to the Lifestyle store at Alwarpet. My wife had been
eye-ing a 2-tier steel-wire fruit basket, which she had seen at a friend's home and who had bought it from Lifestyle. Well, it turned out that they no longer had it in stock, so I just
browsed the whole store for anything else interesting. Naah.

Moved to the City Centre Mall nearby, which has a bigger version of Lifestyle inside it.
Again no luck with the fruit basket, but found some interesting stuff in the kids toy section.
Bought a toy-cellphone for my son (the Chinese one that I mentioned in an earlier post did
not last long, given my son's habit of hurling toys at the wall). A bit costly at 500 bucks,
especially in these times of recession, but still would be cheaper than replacing my wife's
cellphone which would otherwise end up damaged, since it is currently my son's favourite toy.

I am now more into toys that do not require batteries, but there are not too many of them.
Finally chanced upon a 'Thomas' toy train, which requires no batteries - all it needs for it to
move is a push down on the train driver's head. Also, found another dumpster truck that rumbles when you pull on the boulder loaded on it. Again no batteries to worry about. But,
I had run out of Lifestyle vouchers and so decided to pick these up at Shoppers Stop, since
I guessed that the toys available at most stores must be more or less similar.

Ride down to Shoppers Stop, but they are out of Thomas trains. Hmm. Luckily they do have
the rumbling truck, which I pick up for my son. I also find another train with its set of tracks,
a tunnel, tree etc, which I pick up for my nephew Dan whose first birthday is on17th Jan.

I pay for these and am ready to leave when I see a Ferrari F1 replica R/C car (1:28) in the
usual Ferrari red color, with a remote controller that can be worn around your wrist like a
watch. It comes in its custom box, with a platform to lock the car's wheels when not being
used. I fall for it hook, line & sinker, with the only deterrent being the price of Rs.1500.
I spend close to an hour thinking whether I should go for it or not.

I can't use my son as an excuse to buy it because he is too young to appreciate it. I would not
be surprised if he just picks it up and hurls it at the wall. I call my wife for her counsel and as
usual her advice is, "If you like it, buy it. Don't bother about the price. You can use it for the
time-being and when our son is a few years older, you can give it to him".

Boosted by this encouragement, I pick it up and walk to the cash-counter. There is one guy
in line before me whose checkout seems to be taking unusually long. While in line, I remove
the car from the box to have a closer look. As I admire the sleek looks of the car, I can sense
another pair of eyes observing me. I turn to my side to see a young boy with all admiration
in his eyes for the car - I can understand his feelings.

I put the car back in the box and still the guy in front has not finished his checkout. Am now getting a bit impatient now. It is close to 7PM now and I have been out shopping for like 5
hours now !!! I leave the counter, place the car back on the shelf and walk out. Maybe it was
not destined to be mine, yet. But I won't be surprised if I walk in some other day and buy it.

P.S. : In the home-stuff section of Shopper's Stop which is on the 3rd level, just adjacent
their bookshop (Crossword), I found them selling the cute small candles in the little round containers which another friend of mine was searching for. Since she drops in here at this
blog occasionally, this hint is for her.