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The bets are off, who's winning?

The old silk route in Hyderabad still has its charms as the young discover a different shopping matrix, finds SERISH NANISETTI

TRY A LITTLE TEMPTATION: A shophand readies the lure for shoppers PHOTO: MOHD YOUSUF

On a blustery Thursday afternoon, would you like to hit the pavement, duck under cabling, evade beggars, jump over puddles and get roughly pulled into shops or would you rather hunt for parking space, wait for the lift and lounge around in 24 0 Celsius doing small talk while putting together that trousseau?

On the streets of Hyderabad, the choice is stark but difficult.

A mother and her daughter walk into a shoe shop in Abids, sit down and are attended to immediately. "The choice in a shopping mall is limited. Here, the whole range is available. I am sure I will get what I want," says the girl as she tries on a flat sandal with green straps. Unhappy, she is accompanied by an old man to the shop front where the girl points out a similar contraption in a slightly different shade, the old man nods vigorously.

Outside, people paired in twos and threes without children walk into the various shops and are immediately, if somewhat uncomprehendingly, attended to. Inside Bulchand, the 73-year-old landmark in Abids, Gianchand Vatnani an accountant charts the change the shop has undergone. "We have competition on our hands. We are spending more on décor, development and the feel of the shop than we used to do earlier." So, gone is stone flooring, in its place is vitrified tiles and a dash of chrome. "Our customer profile has not changed. Most old-timers prefer to come, chat and buy here," says Gianchand who has been working in the shop for 38 years.

Right beside the shop is a lane chock block with women's outfitters, hosiery sellers and cloth sellers. A couple and their son studying in X std tabulate their purchases: "If you have taste you have to come here. We live in a circle where people keep frequenting malls, it is likely that I will pick up what my friend picks. Imagine the social gaffe if two persons wear the same stuff to a party and one of them happens to be me," says the woman in Telugu, who gives her name as Sudha. "After shopping, it is a ritual that we go to Taj Mahal Hotel for eating, rounded off with a cassata," says the man.

Cross the road and you are in a shopping mall teeming with people, cradling babies, checking price tags, dunking things into their cart while the shop hands (you can never recall the face of a salesperson in a mall, the same is not the case with a retail outlet) stand in vishrant.

"I would rather go to a shopping mall. It is so convenient," says Raghav Kumar, who has been living in Hyderabad for the past 10 years.

"Our clientele is different. Our price margins are different. People who come here don't even want help. People glare if some shophand has the temerity to offer help," says a manager at a shopping mall in Somajiguda. "Our success cannot be measured in footfalls and sales. Why do you think so many malls are opening up," he asks rhetorically.

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