Don't get 'Mall'ed

Artist: James Stevenson Publsihed : The New Yorker December 10 1960

In India, retail revolution is supposed to have begun. Malls have now become landmarks. ‘Maller’ the place, better it is. May not be for living but certainly for buying property! When I recently quizzed a relative, an NRI doctor, why she did not return to India, she said ya it should be considered as India now has malls!

But never dare say, commercialism should be taken out of Diwali or Ganpati or Durga Puja or Christmas. You sure will be ‘mall’ed.

James Surowiecki, author of that brilliant “The Wisdom of Crowds”, has written an essay “THE GIFT RIGHT OUT” in The New Yorker dated Dec 25, 2006

He says: “Christmas shopping in the U.S. has been a reliable source of anxiety and stress for well over a century. “As soon as the Thanksgiving turkey is eaten, the great question of buying Christmas presents begins to take the terrifying shape it has come to assume in recent years,” the New York Tribune wrote in 1894…………..In fact, the more we spend at Christmas, the more we waste. We might actually be happier—and we’d certainly be wealthier—if we exchanged small, well-considered gifts rather than haunting the malls”.