I had given up at some point in time. Oh come on, let me wear that old Mundu which we have. I showed it to my wife. She had one great look and said this will not pass the test. You are in an official setting and you should wear something classier. Given the time we have, I was wondering how to get a new Mundu and kurta. My wife checked for online deliveries. It was not to be. She gave multiple options. The moment I heard those options my energy levels went down.
Finally, I agreed and we decided to venture out around 11.30 AM as we thought the traffic would recede. We booked an Uber. From the distance, I noticed that the car was not very appealing. More so when we got in we saw how pathetic the condition was. Well we didn’t say good morning to the driver, we just got in and shared the PIN. As the vehicle navigated through the maze of traffic my wife commented on the reason why some vehicles are clean and others are not. Her observation was that ” If it’s your vehicle you will keep it clean”. She remembered a quote from the book Essentialism: “No one cleans a rental car!” The Author was describing the “Law of Endowment” which means that we are very possessive of things or processes we own.
From his looks, the driver appeared to be gloomy and lost in himself. Unlike other drivers, he was not talking on his phone and was listening to Google Maps intently. Suddenly while crossing a railway line he expressed, ” Sir, there is no way!” I laughed inside and told him ” Take right”. Sitting at the back without Google we could see there was a road ahead. What was going on? I decided to pay attention and have a look at the road ahead and took the job from Google navigation, after all, my mundu was waiting. It was time for us to get down. I complimented him ” You speak good English”. He proudly responded, ” I am a BSc pass sir”. I congratulated him and thanked him.
As we were entering the shop there was one lady who opened the door and it was like a dream come true for them. It was a weekday afternoon, the shop was not crowded at all. The entire team of sales and support staff rose to welcome us as a role of honour. I went through some of the samples and finally ended up buying one for me and my colleague. I tried various colourful Kurtas under the notice of one salesman, one saleswoman and my wife. Shopping for clothes does not come naturally to me and it’s an effort. How many times do I need to change and show off to finally get the smile or nod? So I ended up taking two Kurtas. The last time I wore a kurta was in 2020 for my cousin’s marriage. It was a herculean task to carry myself around during that time. The very sign of it used to send shivers down my spine after that experience. No wonder that kurta was too long for me and I waited that long now to get into the next one. Finally, bills were paid and the same lady opened the door I did my part by thanking her for getting me what I wanted and that too in no time. The whole experience of buying was made easy thanks to their wonderful service.
I had to buy a pair of sandals as well that goes along with Mundu and a kurta. For that, I decided to go to my favourite place in the town. My wife was laughing away at the glory that I wanted to go so far when there were many shoe stores nearby. My excuse was that I did not want to walk a long way around this place in the scorching heat with my backpack. Uber came in no time and we entered that shoe shop in 30 minutes around 1 PM.
As soon as I entered, he welcomed us in such a way that I felt at home. He looked at my shoes and said “Sir, I can get you a classier one.” He was striking the right notes and also stirring the pot. Then I had to clarify and told him that I had come to buy sandals. He got into the act immediately. He relayed his knowledge to the invisible man. We rarely heard him. Through a small hole, packets started dropping down. Our man would tell him some model number and presto the pack came down. I am not sure how many packets came down on that afternoon. It was a memorable lot. Finally, I made my choice of the sandals. Every time I took a stroll with the sandals he would mention the word classier. After that, I asked him to show me some official shoes. That is when he shifted gears and made me privileged. He made me walk through the entire shop with different models. Finally, I narrowed it down to Da Vinci. After all my love for Italy continues. He took a belt and said this will go along with the shoe. I bought it. He went on to sell me a new kind of polish and brush. I love novelty. Then he demonstrated foot spray. He took off my socks all by himself all of a sudden from one leg. I did the rest. He sprayed all around my leg and made me absorb that sensation. My wife insisted that we have that at home, but may have expired. But by then that sensation had manifested inside me and I added that as well to the shopping cart.
I said ‘yes’ to everything I guess he was selling except that highly prized casual shoes wherein I told him that ‘I am also in sales’. I had created a deep hole in my pocket and that invisible man thankfully had stopped sending packets through the hole by now. My wife was enjoying the camaraderie between us. The way he was making me feel good about myself. In sales we say you should do three things: Assure, Excite and Disturb. I noticed that he used these to good effect. I noticed that he mentioned the words class, classic and classical in his conversations. I went to buy sandals and came out buying shoes, sandals and accessories. I am not fond of shopping when it does I do. It was a great experience and sometimes it is good to sit down and enjoy how someone with passion and knowledge can impress you. After all, it was for staying ” Classical” within my limits.
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