In the toy shop

What do you do when you are on a holiday and you get a windfall of money?
You go shopping of course.

And so it was that Hrit and Naisha sought me out with 100 bucks each in their pockets given by their dadima for a spot of shopping. Fearing I'd need more patience than I could muster on my own, I called upon my sister to support me in this expedition. The sister, who has recently learnt driving (only to take us out during the vacations, says she) agreed readily. I thought it was a good way for the kids to learn to budget their spending. We went to the toy shop.

First came Hrit.
He checked out a few toys..
and settled for two small cars.

Then came Naisha.
She looked
and looked
and looked.
She didn't like anything at the first shop. (All she did like was about ten times the money in her bag.)
We went to the next shop. Nothing.
We came back to the first shop. Nothing.
We walked to a third shop. Nothing.
We went to Archies. Nothing.
We went to Universal - a pretty large stationary shop here. Nothing again.
We went back to Archies.
And here she picked out a pink heart shaped gift box and was still not really happy because she had her eye on something much more expensive.

Then as we were getting in the car we spotted a roadside balloon seller with a few other toys. Naisha ran to him and excitedly picked out a trumpet, all of Rs 10. She blew it noisily all the way home, having finally found her happiness. It's another matter that the trumpet breathed its last by the time we got home. Sigh!


Lessons learnt...
For Naisha
Decision making is tough.
Even if it seems huge while I do my counting, 100 is not really a big sum in the real world.
I am a sucker for roadside shopping.

For Hrit
While shopping, women do not appreciate help or suggestions.
If you tell them to hurry up you'll get your head bitten off.
You just wait patiently for them to finish.

For me
Happiness isn't necessarily expensive.
Patience is a virtue I need to work on.

For the sister
I have unlimited patience for my niece.
I CAN DRIVE.


Endpiece: As it turned out Naisha fell in love with her 'jewellery box '. Aren't kids complicated? Now she's on a hunt for 'things to put in it'. Of course masi has started off her collection. And we're off on another shopping expedition to look for more stuff. Naisha and I. I never do learn from my mistakes, do I?

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