Rohit Brijnath wrote an article on how he prefers the old way of shopping ie. wet markets and small shops. It strikes a poignant note with me, as I am a nostalgic person as well. He mentions shops which sell bales of fabric amongst others. Toa Payoh is the place I always think of with regards to these shops. They have been there from the time I was a toddler.
At the same time, he injects humour and original descriptions into his article. He is a riot to read :) I agree with his rant over the lack of seats in malls. Sometimes, visual and physical fatigue takes over after a long time of browsing. That is when we really long to rest our legs. Just as he knows men who like malls, my god-brother likes to shop in them too :)
I feel poignant whenever I walk past the wet market in my estate too. My mum used to take me to the wet market whenever she needed to prepare for the day's meals. I remember covering my nostrils whenever we walked past the fish stall. I could never stand the smell of uncooked fish and still cannot. I remember anticipating the end of her purchases as that would indicate her walk to the barbecued pork food stall to buy barbecued spare ribs for me. That was my favourite snack. I have not eaten it ever since I was a child. Perhaps it is a subconscious way of retaining the sweet memories associated with it, albeit in an different way. It is as if I don't want to touch their precious fragility and want to encase them in a glass dome forever, afraid that they will disappear if I approach them again. It is like wanting time to stand still.
He yearns for real interaction and friendship between customer and salesperson in the said industry. Yes, it is a rarity being able to gain such a genuineness, since most salespeople merely do their job of selling the product to the consumers. I am blessed to have had got this in a shop at Centrepoint. I entered the shop to look at the clothes but ended up falling into easy conversation with the salesperson. That was the start of a special friendship despite our different races. I would drop in each time I went to the mall, since she was the only one there. We are still friends to this day :)
