The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Weather plays spoilsport

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Monday, Aug 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Weather plays spoilsport

Shoppers stay at home on two days only to come out on Sunday evening

— PHOTO: K. RAMESH BABU

No buyers: Malls in the twin cities, which would have otherwise been flooded with shoppers during the weekend, wear a deserted look on Sunday.

HYDERABAD: The usual weekend buzz was missing. Malls were not packed, the multiplexes did not have eager faces queuing up and bazaars wore a near-deserted look. The rain that lashed the city for the last two days kept most indoors depriving them of their scheduled shopping and entertainment activities that usually starts on Fridays.

Business establishments did receive customers who braved the inclement weather and brought them some cheer on Friday.

However, by the next day, the usual extended euphoria just dissipated as clouds kept showering the whole day.

Travel turned hazardous with inundated roads and as one store keeper at City Central said, it deterred the most enthusiastic from venturing out.

Slight improvement

As a thoroughly drenched city could hardly get into a shopping and fun mood, Saturday saw very little activity at almost all the big centres that attract shoppers in droves ending up with just a trickle. On Sunday, there was a slight improvement as the downpour turned into a drizzle and people started trooping out in the evening.

Interestingly, for many, the destination changed and instead of heading for swank malls, they turned up at Tank Bund and Necklace Road for a glimpse of the inflows in Hussain Sagar.

“Yesterday was a weekend unlike any that we have seen in our business. Today it picked up a bit,” conceded a sales girl at Hyderabad Central.

“Saturday outing is a must in the family and I had a tough time convincing my daughter that we could not go out in such rain yesterday,” said Deepa Chauhan.

By evening, there was a visible rise in the number of people at the usual hangouts that included restaurants and other eateries.

Screens that played movies with few viewers for two days, were back in business and the Sunday evening shows drew more.

Apart from eateries, stores stocking furniture, apparel, cosmetics and electronic goods too have anticipation of more sales as the week draws to a close but this turned out to be a different weekend.

For them, it was only rain and no sales.

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Andhra Pradesh