Shopping at Rajori Garden

Today, the day started out slightly cooler, about 38ºC (100.4ºF). Not wanting to stay out another day, and in a dire need to buy some Indian clothes (after not visiting for 3 years, I wanted, needed Indian clothes). We decided to go to City Square, a mall in a group of five malls in Rajori Garden.

When we got to the mall, I was surprised to hear the music that was playing inside. I was expecting to find the latest Bollywood music being blasted over the speakers; instead, I heard Tik Tok by Kesha, All the Right Moves by One Republic, and Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. Although the imperialism that occurred in the nineteenth century is over, a new type of imperialism has replaced it-cultural imperialism. Western culture has so pervaded India that recognizable Western brands have replaced the Indian brands I recognized. Coke replaces Thumbs-Up (Indian equivalent of coke), jeans replace traditional Indian clothing (like the salwar kameez). Most of the stores had a section for western clothes along with a section of Indian clothes. Granted, the western clothes weren’t as up to date fashion-wise as Abercrombie and Fitch or Hollister, but the section was bigger than I had ever seen before. I needed both western and Indian clothes, so I went to most of the stores in the mall that offered both types of clothes. Although I liked some of the clothes I found, I ended up not buying them, either because they weren’t perfect or it was too expensive.

When we went to the mall, we used a taxi service. On the way back, we used the Delhi metro. It was similar to any of the metros used in American cities, except it was all overhead. I was surprised by the quality of the trains, as the only Indian trains I had traveled in before were those that were used to take 16 hr journeys in because it was cheaper than taking a plane. The Commonwealth Games are coming to India in October, so that could be a possible reason for the sudden uptake in the construction of more efficient transportation options. After the metro came our ride in an auto-rickshaw, a three wheeled small car with no windows and doors, and where the price can be negotiated. Since my Hindi is apparently very Americanized, my aunt haggled for us, bring the price down from 100 Rupees to 30 Rupees. The auto-rickshaw re-validated my beliefs about the great disparity between the wealthy and the poor. Where my aunt lived was pretty middle class, but when we meant to the mall, we saw the two extremes. We saw the extremely wealthy, with chauffeured- BMWs and completely branded clothing, but we also saw the extremely poor, sitting in the Metro station seeking respite from the heat, begging for money as their children went around shirtless or with extremely dirty clothing. This contradiction could be seen in our auto-rickshaw driver, who was only making about 500 rupees (or $10) a day, but had a cell phone that my cousin claimed was the same cell phone that her dad had. If India is to become a developed nation and join the US and the European nations at the top, among other things, this disparity is going to need to be reduced.