Was quite a muted experience. A few plane delays, a shopping trip in Delhi, a bit of cable TV, a flight to Malaysia, change planes to Singapore, stay in hotel in Singapore, attend conference, eat Singaporean food. All muted, not a sense of emptiness, just a sense of it doesn't quite feel right.
I went to DLF Emporio. I think the phrase is white elephant. In a country where most people earn less than one australian dollar a day, this super mega mall has opened in the middle of nowhere and a short distance from slums not pictured in Slumdog Millionaire. More marble than Taj Mahal and all of it imported from Italy. Crass.
Anyway, it is a high end mall, the comparison of King Street in Perth or Collins Street here in Melbourne. I think they built it as a mall so the common man couldn't come in. A street side shop means riff raff, the sheer size of the mall would frighten off most people.
It was empty, surprise surprise, I was the only customer in nearly every store apart from Tag Heurer and Christian Dior. I suppose it was designed in a pre-credit crisis world, where all lived on debt and no one paid cash.
The problem with the concept is three fold - it is isolated in South Delhi near the airport, meaning there is very little through traffic, but because of the desire for a mega-mall experience, it could only buy the land in the boondocks. It is excessively large and expensive and not many people have the money to shop there anymore apart from expats and tourists and finally, by being placed so close to slums and proper vibrant malls like Vasant Kunj, it only highlights the inequity of life in India.
Google maps informs me it is on Nelson Mandela Marg (road) (points A and B)
View Larger Map
No comments:
Post a Comment