Monday, October 23

We have done it again. We have come to Lulu Mall without realising that today’s public holiday would cause every third person in Kerala to head there and hang out.

Most of them will buy very little but instead treat the mall as an amusement park, and wander around, pausing every now and then for a snack or an ice cream. This has nothing to do with the American habit of window shopping, because people’s interest lies with the snacks, the entertainments, and the other people, not with the merchandise in the shops.

I sit in the rear of a branch of Ritu Kumar’s shops for some time with my new friend the stylish mannikin. We soon realise that we don’t have very much to say to each other.