In Defence Of Window Shoppers

Just came back from a taxing journey to the city, taxing on my strength, taxing on my pocket. I had gone to meet some friends but the merciless city never provides one with comfortable meeting places which makes me miss my college even more, where every place was suitable for a meeting. So the commoners like us who can at least dare to think and above all act big always have a juicy option to meet at one of the malls but here you have to actually buy time. You would be coaxed into either shopping or indulging in some kind of peptic sin just in order to avoid developing a complex and all that comes at a hefty sum considering the standard maintained at such places. But in such demanding situations, the cake is taken away by a group of seemingly cheeky characters who happily defy all odds and weather all complexes to emerge as the successful survivors of this materialistic world which is constantly intimidated by the onslaught of incessant marketing strategies aiming to tear open a big hole in your pocket or the more ambitious ones going for your hard earned and harder kept bank balances. Branded by the civilization as window shoppers, I am in complete awe of these artists of the drama called sophisticated life.
Constantly marginalized by the vain and oft despised, class of ‘shoppers’ neither add anything to the coffers of the ever expecting traders nor they seemingly do anything productive. But friends, in my opinion they must be encouraged and why not? They lend a hustle bustle to the place and indirectly increase its appeal as potential buyers are often apprehensive about approaching a shop that is less visited perhaps suspecting something untoward. Secondly, these are the ultimate authorities of cost to brand utility ratios providing a detailed overview of what is reasonable and what is not, so if you are on the money losing side of the transaction, consulting an accomplished window shopper is always a remarkable idea.
Coming back to the mall scenario, after we had given in to the complex, we were gorging on some exotically named dessert, “At Rs.70 ONLY!!” as the advertising board had shamelessly declared. The sweetness of the dessert was lost in the bitterness of shelling out a princely sum for four of us. A quick glance around the place and I cold see happily moving window shoppers, peaceful at heart with secure pockets and roaming with élan, with a wry smile on their faces. Lucky they were, not to fall prey to worldly charms. I AM JEALOUS!!!


I saw them proudly gliding along in front of every shop and we, the group of so called sophisticated shoppers (read fools) were sitting there licking the last drops of the dessert as if licking our wounds after being hammered on the head by the generous payment we made at the cash counter.
May the art of window shopping flourish and may the tribe of window shoppers prosper.