I have no idea why men hate asking for directions. Maybe I will never know. My parents are a step forward.
A couple of months ago, we were looking for a furniture shop. Mom wanted to buy cupboards for the kitchen and like every other Indian mother, she wanted to go to that particular shop from where they bought the bed last year. Here’s the twist – they couldn’t recall the name of the shop. “I remember distinctly!” my mother exclaimed. “The shop was a small one with a slope at the entrance where we parked our car. It had 4-5 steps and then there was a cashier’s counter on the left”, she continued to describe the infrastructure to her flummoxed daughter. “Yes” dad joins to support mom because he has no other choice. “Rucha, look for a slope in front of the shop” dad orders. So there I was, looking for a small shop with a slope in this tech-dominant world. I wondered if Maps will be updated for these situations in future.
“Mom, there are 5-6 furniture shops on this road. Why don’t we see if they have cupboards?” I tried to make a contribution to my list of bad decisions. Mom looked back at me, almost staring, and added to the description of the shop “If you can’t look for slopes, look up and spot a shop with an orange board and white text. “ Instead of looking at the colors of the board and text, she should have observed the name of the shop. This time I didn’t say that aloud. After half an hour of wandering around, my parents concluded that the shopkeeper must have relocated. Yes, he relocated from the city’s most prime location!
Today, the history came haunting me again. Dad suggested that we go to “that” stationary shop which is on the first floor. I checked, no new update from Google for Maps yet. Apparently this stationary shop has a blue board. So here we are, looking for a blue board on the first floor. All I can spot here is Pizza hut. “Hmm…Pizza!! Shh, focus Rucha”. “Dad, are you sure this blue board shop is here?” I tried to distract my mind from the carbs. “Positive!” dad tried to pamper his ego. “All the buildings here seem a century old. Maybe it’s a little ahead“I suggested. “I have an idea. Let’s park the car and look for this shop on foot. What say?” Dad said. Now, we can’t ignore his suggestion the way he did, can we? After walking for about 15 minutes, dad said the golden words again “I think he relocated.”
Who are these shopkeepers and why do they keep relocating? What grudge do they hold against my family that they move from the busiest streets? My greatest concern is, how in the world did the shopkeepers replace a 100 years old building in the same exact spot? Why are all the shops vanishing?
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