Observations and Global Shopping

I swear if there is one overused word these days, its Global. Of course there are other words that are being overused to the point that you wish the word never existed, but for today, we’ll stick to Global.

With the transition from May to June, once again Malaysians and a large number of tourists are thronging a particular mall in KL for shopping for things from India, thus making it somewhat global. That and the fact that some Malaysian stalls have also been thrown in to make a better mix. Welcome to the 6th Global Indian Shopping Festival!

It was the second day of the fair yesterday and we decided to go, seeing that it was the weekend and all. The previous year we ended up visiting the fair towards the end, where most of the goods had met their respective owners and we were left with what can only be suitably labeled as the remnants.

We took the train there, and it was crowded to the point that I could not hold on to the bar that stood stolidly while people of all shapes and sizes with varying degrees of hairstyles held onto it as though it had promised them wonderful things! Both my sister and I had a conversation about the train driver who most probably is bored to death every single day that his idea of fun is pronouncing the names of the stops in different accents.

Anyway, we kind of systematically scoured the aisles among the booths that were set up. I met a friend of mine shopping for her wedding at the end of this year. And we kept meeting at each aisle several times during the whole day. Probably we had subconsciously devised the same system as to not miss anything. This year, I ditched the heels for proper comfortable shoes, which were not that comfortable anymore after three hours of walking (we were there for about 5 hours, which means my poor feet had to endure 2 hours of pain!!)

The crowd was unbelievable. I can’t imagine why people are willing to throng shopping malls in the weekends when it gets so crowded (each time I go there, regardless if there is an exhibition or not, if there were sales or not or if the whole country was suffering from an economic crisis or not, every single shopping mall in the city will be packed with people in the weekends) although I do have a theory. It’s because we have no where else to go to. It’s too hot for the park, there’s no where to go to and no one wants to stay at home either!

We got ourselves some stuff, including a saree which was adorned with prints with some sparkly stuff that was sewed by hand by some poor rural women. It was gorgeous!! I had left my camera at home on the way out, so there are no photos of the shopping fair itself. These are photos that I took when I got back.

From the top: A bracelet, an ethnic bangle which can be used as a weapon for self defence, and the gorgeous saree that politely whispered "buy me"

Well, after all this excitement, and as I'm typing this out, I realised that I had just missed a bookfair held in another mall that would have been equally crowded!