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Shopping in the malls isn’t as easy as it used to be, say…five years back. And I say this after spending my weekend hours of the last six months, in shopping malls.

If like me you are also married and spend a lot of your free time in the malls, you would probably agree that shopping carts are a nuisance. So much so, I get dreams of people riding the roads (and highways) on shopping carts. And since I saw this dream in the early morning hours, I fear it could soon be a reality. After all, no license is required for handling a shopping cart.

Since there is no license even if you are mentally unstable, you can get behind a shopping cart and hurtle down the road. While on the subject, what if your poetry teacher asks you to write a poem describing a shopping cart in the hands of a lunatic?

Simple. Here goes -

A dangerous tool,
In the hands of a fool.

I was in Reliance Super, recently and almost got run over by a seven year old pushing a shopping cart. It is another thing that sometimes shopping carts move by themselves (down the slopes) and injure you…but when a gum-chewing, 14-year-old with his red velvet underwear showing above his jeans pushes a shopping cart into you….it is time to do a reality check. Life inside a shopping mall is no easier than on the MG Road outside it (have you wondered why every city has a MG Road?).

But before I got run over by this 14-year-old, I had my bit of struggle getting the shopping cart from their line-up at the entrance. After a lot of pushing and shoving – in which I hurt my fingers twice and my leg once – I managed to get one shopping cart for myself. I made my daughter sit in the place provided for her. A tired husband, who just can’t hold on to the baby while the mother is trying on the different shades of L’ Oreal lipsticks, must have invented the baby seat in the cart. Hats off, sir!

The shopping carts in India don’t come with safety belts and ABS (Anti-Braking System)…and thus I had to trust God Almighty and start pushing my shopping cart. The good thing about shopping in pairs is that one can hunt down the items, while the other can push the cart and keep the baby entertained.

By the time we had finished, I had opened up a Maggi Rice Noodles pack, used Teflon’s Microwave Friendly Bowl, started an on-display Samsung M183DN Microwave (the one with 20 Liters capacity and six power levels – the salesman said so), and cooked noodles….and then spread them on my head so my daughter could laugh.

To cut the long story short, shopping carts are dangerous. Besides, on not finding a Bar Code on my daughter, the boy at the billing counter gave her to another agent and asked him to fetch a similar piece BUT with the bar code!

Other Funny Reads

# Buying a pram for my daughter
# Television - my new friend, philosopher & guide
# Accepting gifts from relatives
# Buying a Microwave oven
# Getting my hair cut under a tree