Phoenix Mall

My Thursday began like all other Thursdays…I woke up before my alarm, went through the motions of my daily routine, had dosa-sambar for breakfast, class, and meals for lunch. Unlike other Thursdays though, we’re going for a movie today. Brahmayugam, Mammootty’s much-awaited horror drama on its release day at Luxe in Phoenix. On our way to Guindy, I feel the stares on the local train as usual and wonder if we’re a tad bit overdressed in our bright lipstick and tight-fitting t-shirts. This again is usual. Standing sandwiched between sweating crowds, holding onto the blackened handrails for dear life, we dream of the air-conditioned, perfumed halls of Phoenix Mall. The duality of Chennai, we say. We arrive too early for the 4.15 show (by almost an hour and then some). We wander through the shops, now feeling overwhelmingly underdressed as people who smell like wealth (how do you do that?!) pass by in clothes that look straight off the rack of some designer store I would never have the courage to enter. Like most people our age, we walk around Zara and H&M judging clothes we could never afford, laughing at the ridiculously overpriced “ugly” dresses. Nonetheless, we are envious of the woman who walks out of the doors carrying two huge bags emblazoned with the universally recognizable letters proclaiming her as someone who belongs to this world. You know, the people casually carrying large Starbucks baggies, Krispy Kreme boxes, and Michael Kors goggles. Their easy gait and non-wandering eyes (far removed from my perpetually wonderstruck gaze) seem to shout their belonging, their nonchalance in the face of pricetags that show 5-digit sums. Out loud I say “Blatant capitalism, man. Outrageous!”. Inside I’m picturing myself in some distant imaginary future, sporting the same gold-rimmed goggles, strolling along unbothered with a Starbucks cup lazily in hand like an accessory. 

We’re waiting for a third member to join us. The thing about these “rich places” is that they always smell amazing, almost as though designed to make you extremely aware of the fact that you had traveled there in a crowded public transport system after an entire day of class on a hot February day. I had been sweating since morning.  It's like they pump feelings of inadequacy into the air conditioning at hi-fi malls, a feeling accessible only to those not carrying platinum credit cards in their overflowing wallets. Yes, I am aware that I sound bitter, why do you ask?

Anyway, we somehow end up in ‘HomeCenter’, a veritable Wonderland for people who buy Architecture magazines and follow interior designing pages on Instagram. There are gold and silver plated deer-shaped cigarette holders, bronze elephants who carry trays on their back, steel puppies who pump out imaginary liquid soap and more. A conservationist would probably have an aneurysm there. Anthropocentrism, I announce out loud to my friends. It was a new word I’d learnt in class that week. The plight of elephants who do not stop labouring for man even when they are made of bronze, the plight of man who would slave all his life to afford one of those elephants for his front room. Still, I’d like one of them, maybe one not quite so callous but aesthetically pleasing and something which would let people know I was “one of them”. The future wealthy self in my dream keeps gathering possesions from Phoenix Mall. 

Before I had any more time to keep building castles in the air, our friend arrives and we enter the theatre. The movie was good, not great. All in all, it was a pretty good day, but I think I’ll prefer going to Spencer Plaza next time. I don’t think future me can withstand the all the debt that current me keeps piling up for her each time I visit Phoenix Mall.