BY A SHOPAHOLIC

ITH JANM-ASHTMI, GANESH Chaturthi and Shravan-ka-mahina coming to a close it looks like the festive shopping season has arrived, at least in urban Goa. The shopping season has got off to some frenetic shopping with the Pretty Home exhibition-cum-sale which concluded on Sept.8. Exhibition sales have become popular in Goa with folk who think they get more updated products at these shows. The Pretty Home show was the first of the season and so packed in the evening hours. Leading one shopper to observe pertinently that if one wants to avoid a crowded scent the best time to go is during the siesta hour of 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., “because this is the time Goans of all hue prefer to snooze in the cool of their homes!”

 But it makes sense to skip siesta if one is affected by distracting crowds…another shopper, Manju J., when queried about how she makes up her mind to buy something for the house, hubby, children, herself, quipped in mock-humour, “Well, I go for a preliminary tour of the exhibition and generally make a list of things I want to buy, then go home and think about it for a day or two and return to buy whatever I need…the break gives me time to think over whether I want a particular something or not! This way I don’tend up buying needless or useless things to clutter up the kitchen or home…and stops me from squandering money in these inflationary times!” This is a practical and pragmatic housewife who, incidentally, is a hardworking professor of gynaecology at the GMC and usually lives a rushed-off-her-feet life from home to hospital and hospital to home. Time and organization is of the essence for working women who double or treble as professionals, housewives, mothers, daughter-in-laws, etc.

But to come to the just-concluded Pretty Home exhibition it was one of the more interesting domestic exhibitions in town. Offering everything from garments to kitchen appliances to bathroom fittings to computers and furniture, lamp shades, silver gilded jewellery, Ayurvedic tablets to stick on the walls and corners to discourage cockroaches and lizards, easy-to-fix hooks, etc., etc. In fact, there were very many useful buys to stock up the home with. Many women were seen taking an interest the models of chapatti-making electric hot plates. The Sun Rise Associates stall at the entrance of the exhibition branded their product “National” and offered an all-over India service guarantee of seven years. According to a spokesperson here, “the hot plate is not made of Teflon (which tends to flake off with use) but of a stone alloy so and you may make chappaties, parathas, stuffed parathas, dosa and many things with or without the use of oil.”

At the Pretty Home show. . . Domestic flourmill demo.

The “National” instant chapatti maker holds out the promise of a hot chapatti in 15 seconds and was priced at Rs.1,500 at the exhibition. But a little further down there was Jananicy Agency marketing a similar model at the same price but their “Eagle” model came with a free “Annapurna dough making bowl” with every purchase! The spokesperson here said, “Our model is made in Chennai while the other model selling here is made in Delhi…” (implying made-in-Delhi products are generally inferior!). Mrs. Jyoti M., a shopper, viewing a demonstration of how to make chappaties in a jiffy had this to say, “These `easy to make, time saving, no oil, less current’ chapatti-makers look convenient but a friend of mine who bought it says you have to get your roti dough exactly right in fine consistency and there’s a knack to applying appropriate pressure to turn out perfect chappaties…she thought she’d be able to turn out hot, hot phulka at the table and eat hot chappaties herself but it never happened!” Still, this is an interesting buy in the market if anyone is interested.

Elsewhere, Cookwell’s domestic “Insta-Grind” flour mill (Rs.3,600) was inviting much attention. A demonstrator here was turning out an array of flours e.g. wheat flour, gramflour, semolina, rice flour, etc. With a domestic grinder like this one could make one’s own fresh stock of any flour as and when required at home. There’s a five-year guarantee and an offer of three multipurpose bowls for wet grinding along with it. “The patent design is registered and said the demonstrator, “The minimum cereal or pulse you may turn into flour is 50 g …you may also grind spices in our Insta-Grind flourmill.” A very useful. For door delivery and door call Cookwell Domestic Appliances on tel.no.2319902, there’s an agency based in Ponda in Goa.

It was a pretty educative Pretty Home exhibition with lots of “discounts” (a few products are much more economically priced in the bazaar of course), and to mention just a few more irresistible shopping temptations…Rainbow inverters, vaastu or feng shui healing stones and good luck charms “Made in China”, cotton socks and towels for a steal (Rs.60 per three good quality cotton socks), Zodiac rings, the entire range of Sunova supplements ranging from spirulina to neem to kerala to ashwagandha to brahmi. These Sunova natural extracts are becoming popular with folk who’ve accepted the fact that their diets are poor and need to be supplemented. From Nagpur and Rajasthan were a range of chatpatti (very agreeable to the palate) digestives e.g. “jeera goli”, “kokum jeera goli”, honey steeped amla nuggets, “hingashti goli”, an exhaustive array of them. These after-dinner and any-time “tongue-touchers” are becoming more and more popular with Indians of all hue preferring to patronize them in lieu of the sugary candies and chocolates of the market.

Yet another product which was selling out fast was the “Yahooo Vapouriser” (Rs.100), a tumbler-like product which filled with water and plugged on offered a steady stream of soothing steam….ideal for a facial steam cleansing or clearing stuffed nasal blockages during a bout of cough and cold! Also, although made of quality plastic, it is neat and safe product offering genuine breathing relief. Wait for the next Pretty Home exhibition to buy it or perhaps some store in Panjim has stocked up on this product. Or look for it at more exhibitions coming up this festive season!

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