My Weird Western Ways

Today marks two weeks in India, which simultaneously feels fleeting and like a lifetime.  This is primarily because I've spent the last six years in a culture that is antithetical to life here in Delhi.  This was glaringly evident in my expedition for a kitchen knife and groceries. 

The guesthouse where I'm staying has a small kitchen, but is only equipped with plates, mugs and a bowls.  So after eating oatmeal and noodle cups for a few days I decided to invest in a knife and cutting board so I could take advantage of the fruit stands on each corner.  I'm sure there are far easier ways to go about this, but my intense need for independence and lack of language skills got the better of me.

I decided to rely on the familiarity of a grocery store instead of figuring out the stands a the local market.  After some Googling I learned about Modern Bazaar - a seemingly organized grocery store chain with where I could peruse the shelves at my leisure.  On my first attempt I realized that's not the vibe here.  There is definitely NOT a labor shortage here in India and many of the employees at restaurants and stores are eager to assist.  In Fairbanks, I'm used to large aisles and many empty shelves.  Well Modern Bazaar not only has shelves packed floor to ceiling, but the workers are bringing more and more boxes of goods to restock. These masters of physics have figured out how to maximize every centimeter of empty space.  There is also an employee posted at seemingly each aisle waiting for me to tell them what I need - as if I know.  So after an hour of navigating this situation I walked away with more cups of oatmeal and noodles and a bag of carrots.

For my next attempt I decided to go big - a mall!  I researched other grocery store chains and found one called Smart Bazaar!  Surely this would be the Fred Meyer or Kroger of the East!  So I took an auto rickshaw to the outskirt of South Delhi and found myself in a complex of retail shops and food courts.  I embraced it all - the air conditioning, the escalators, the Chili's!  So after a chopped salad and iced tea I went on the hunt for Smart Bazaar.  Two hours of following Google maps through parking garages and fire exit stairwells I found the entrance - CLOSED FOR RENOVATION.  I was defeated.  So I snagged an overpriced auto and went home to my carrots.

Select City Mall Modern Bazaar

Third time's a charm I told myself.  This time I searched specifically for home goods stores - none of this all-in-one-place Walmart garbage.  The algorithm landed me on Shoppers Stop in yet another mall.  There was even promise of another Modern Bazaar, but I didn't get my hopes up.  Each mall entrance is guarded by security and involves sending your bags through a scanner and being wanted with a metal detector.  It's odd to me that the USA doesn't implement this given our massive issues with gun violence and I don't know enough about India to know why it's necessary here.  

This mall was actually two different complexes that were connected by a small hallway.  So of course I went in through the wrong entrance and stumbled around empty stores until I came to the entrance of Shoppers Stop.  I hit the jackpot.  Again an abundance of employees were eager to help me find all the items I didn't know I needed or wanted.  "Just looking" doesn't really translate linguistically or culturally.  However, I did find a knife and a cutting board, along with air freshener and a washcloth.  It would have likely been much easier I just accepted the help.  Feeling accomplished I found the Modern Bazaar and it too was glorious.  I bought cucumbers, tomatoes, loaf of sourdough and some garlic feta spread.  Naively I thought I could order an Uber and it would find me at the "Uber Pick Up" stand.  It took about 40 minutes of walking up and down the street looking for my particular license number before giving up and paying twice as much for an auto to get home.  I could have haggled or not paid the extra 100 rupees, but that's just not who I am - yet.