new market

i went to new market today, it felt like being in a time warp.
i remember going there, sitting on dad's shoulders, feeling very tall. it was probably a pre-chrismas evening. i remember lights, chrismas trees ( i didn't know what those were then), decorations and the smell of new things. it felt magical - that too green synthetic green, shiny baubles, a lit up market teeming with dressed-up beautiful people, making turns and taking steps, reaching nahoum to pick up goodies, the warm smell of fresh bakes and a forbidding lady. i was too stunned to want anything.
i remember someone's birthday. my mother came back mid-morning to announce that new market had burned down. the cake came from flury's.
i remember mid-school days, being taken to a shop called queeny's for my first proper pair of jeans. baggy was , unfortunately, still in. we stopped to get bed linen and cotton socks, shirts from the old parsee ladies and just before i burst with excitement, we turned a corner from the cannon to get to the shop where everyone else had got their denims from. no, the fashionable ones suri uncle sent from delhi just didn't matter.
i remember the first time i was allowed to go there with friends. with money enough for a coke, a movie at new empire, two way fare for S- 23 and ten rupees extra, just in case.
i remember many more times i went into that dilapidated old building. the feeling has always been the same. a pleasant sense of well-being.


and just in case you were wondering, yes, i am now the proud owner of three pairs of earrings, two pairs of slippers (one with pink sequins), a hakoba top and a pair of capris.