Saturday, October 21, 2006
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Shopping at Khurana's
Come Ramadhan and shopping for new clothes becomes hot for Muslims everywhere in the world. Every Muslim is encouraged to wear his best clothes on the day of Eid. There are quite a number of places in Hyderabad where you can buy good clothes. But for some, it has become a tradition to buy Pathani suits from the well known Khurana's. From the time I have been in Hyderabad, I remember my dad taking me to Khurana's and buying me a joda. It is quite popular among our relatives as well and Khurana's gets loads of business from our side.
Khurana's, for all its popularity, is disadvantageous if you go at the last moment (the night of Eid). Less choice, more crowd. This time I decided that shopping as early as possible will have great benefits. For me shopping at Khurana’s is easy. Every time I visit Khurana's (which is generally once a year) I mentally decide what I will be buying the next year. So, when I do land up here, the time spent in selecting the appropriate joda is minimal.
This year, I went to Khurana's with my cousins. My uncle has a way with the people at the shop and him being along was sure to bring some discount our way.
At Khurana's
Going early meant there was very little rush. So once my uncle finished talking to the guy in charge there we were assigned a very good salesman and off we went to select our dresses. We browsed through quite a few sections. I had already decided upon my choice..you know Like LAST YEAR!!..so I was pretty sure where I had to go. First up Khaja Uncle finalized his selection(in the kurtha section), then we went ahead to the Pathani section. There we came across quite a lot of variety. Some gaudy, some weird. One set of clothes had a black top and a Blue pyjama some mistake on the part of the packers I suppose.
Shafi bhaiya looked at quite a lot of variety and then BANG!! One of them caught his eye and he chose that after selecting the size. Just about when Shafi bhaiya was wrapping up there was another Loud BANG!! (in my mind of course) as someone deposited on the counter a dress that fit like hand in glove with the image of "My Selection". I grabbed it, inspected and finalized it. But the salesman said it was one size too large for me ("Yeh pehne tho aap doob jaathey" - If you wear it, you will sink in it ). But no problemo, we easily found the exact same piece in a smaller size.
The precision was quite military like, where soldiers line up to get their rations, we marched ahead one after another and selected our choices with a lot of inputs from our salesman. And we were out of the shop in quite a short time considering we were there selecting six sets of clothes.
Shafi Bhaiya with the Clothes in a Complimentary bag
In the meantime, during the selection of Rafi bhaiya, there was something that kept us occupied. The Police visited the shops running late into the night. They came seeking permission letters but also something else. Moolah, Bribe..etc etc..You can see the Policemen in the photo Below just behind the Blue car
Me and Rafi Bhaiya (happy with his choice) and (police behind us)
Later we had a good discussion of how things go around with businesses competing with each other and how Police gain from every marketing ploy.
Busy in discussions
Oh yeah...before I leave you..lemme show your my selection..of last year that I bought this year
will update you on Eid of how I look wearing it.