The Man

Disclaimer: I have dropped my usual writing style and tried to follow normal english grammar which is of course easier to read.

I happened to enjoy the exclusive company of two women wanting to shop in mall. I used to do this with my mom when I was just a little boy. I would always find the closest clean flat surface to sit on, when my mom goes over and over the sarees finding the "matching" colour in the difference shades of light. Anyway, it had been quite a while since then, and could not resist the temptation to join them.

We started with lunch (which was my idea) and the ladies expressed their "need" to buy shoes. Since I knew about this need, I trotted along. I actually did not know that women's shoes had hair ahem fur and they wanted to try it out, and yes they did. There were shoes with fur, shoes with high heals, boots with heals, pink fluffy shoes with bunny ears (I tried them and is actually very soft) slip-ons, shoes with laces, zips, buckles, shoes with flat soles, hard soles, plastic soles, pencil heals. They tried them all. We came to buy winter shoes. Then one of girls bought a pair of shiny black leather shoe with hard soles and a soft inner lining. The other could not make up her mind. I was hungry again.

Then they realized that they had come only to buy socks. But Boston store did not have good socks. Walmart is better (I suggested this wonderful idea) but they did not want to go to Walmart because Walmart pays very little to its employees. People in academia cannot afford that kind of anti-capitalist priciples. And before the end of the day, we visited Walmart and collected more than just socks.

Btw, our picnic to the mall was mainly to only to buy socks and some cardigans (the need to buy cardigans kept coming in waves every time we passed a clothes store). "Ann Tylor" is more of a fashion statement and usually used to entertain girls on such mall outings. In we went, and they tired an array of expensive party clothes. There was a singular moment in the day when one of teh girls tried on a maroon gown, when I could not help staring. She was gorgeous enough to make me start flirting with her and make the other girl jeolous. I have not seen movie actresses in real, but she was looking like one that day. I was the one disheartened when she decided not to buy that, but I did not really give in to her insinuations, and did not open my wallet to buy it for her. Gosh, I am only a grad student. Unfortunately Ann Taylor did not have good cardigans.

Next came GAP, Banana republic and other easy to forget popular brands. On the way out of JCPenny, they got a glimpse of the jewellery section and again "need" arose. The girls were smiling so much at the proximity to so much jewellery. Babies don't get excited this much. I sat around another round of "does this stone look good?", or "does this ring match my shirt?" There were so many stones, red, blue, green, brown, black, tranparent, shiny, opaque. There was all kinds of stones that I used to have in my pebble collection. I tried a single clip-on earing: they though I looked "metro", but I looked more like "homo". I did not venture that again.

If I had not offered my help they would not have come to a conclusion that day. Basically girls need to be asked what they want. They do not always want glittery stuff, no pearls (that was for grandmas) So some geometric shape that goes will with one of their fancy clothes. Not too big and not tiny too. That was an awesome algorithm. I scavenged through the 10 or so shelves and got their heart's content. Even though they did not choose what I had selected, they soon settled for something close. See, the man is always needed.

And then after we heard an announcement that we had 5 mins before the mall was closed, I rushed to get my wool jacket for myself. Asked the ladies and got the right answer "It is too good for you" ... "I know!"

So after 6 hours, I made the most expensive buy of the day, in the last 5 mins. But I loved the day.