Tamasha Stores- 2

If there’s anything one should give credit to the Hyderabadi men for, it is the manner in which they spare no expense when it comes to decking up their women. So much so that the guys really don’t bother about their own appearance and don’t spend much on clothes which has the unfortunate effect of making them appear so unstylish that you can pick out a Hyderabadi guy from a crowd just by his clothes alone if not from the dumb expression on his face. Or else there’s really no reason why there should be at least one store selling gold and jewelry opening almost every week in Hyderabad. Last week I read that ‘Hyderabad’s biggest gold store’ –‘Jos Alukka’s’ was being inaugurated by, of all the people, Mahesh Babu, the actor. (Odd how these supposedly ‘macho’ heroes are peddling women's stuff - NTR for Malabar Gold, Nagarjuna for Kalyan Jewellers.)

I get the impression that after food, it is perhaps gold that the Hyderabadi spends on most. There are whole streets lined with gold and jewelry stores, like in Punjagutta, Abids, Basheerbagh-Liberty and even Pathergatti in the old city and so on, where almost every shop is packed with people buying gold and gold jewelry like it is going out of fashion. On the same day I also read about the Postal Department joining hands with Reliance Money Infrastructure Limited to sell gold coins through post offices as if there aren’t enough stores already selling the yellow metal. If there’s proof needed about how loaded the Hyderabadis are then one only has to look at the crowds in these stores. Then there was the jaw dropping news item that I read in the same page in the same newspaper about MBS Jewellers’ plans to sell gold and silver in the form of bars and coins like gold and silver jewelry wasn’t enough. It’s on page 2 of The Hindu dated June 4, 2011.

Then there was the news of the opening of ‘Women’s World’ at Punjagutta, a mall exclusively for women to buy their stuff from. I wonder why they had to open such a store (though I agree it is a good idea) when almost every second store in the city sells only stuff meant for women. There’s little for guys to choose from and fewer shops to buy. Wherever one goes, one sees only stores where the majority customers are women. There’s nothing wrong in it though but I wonder who they dress up for considering how the average Hyderabadi man has eyes only for biryani. I also wish these tamasha stores wouldn’t advertise so often, so loudly and so widely through handbills, newspaper and television ads, hoardings and what not. It gets a bit too much after a while and gives the impression as if we Hyderabadis don’t really have anything worthwhile to do except eat, drink, and shop.