Chanakya

Chanakya or Kautilya has been adopted as the mascot of everything strategic in India, and strategy is synonymous with the Military, after all the men in uniform are the premier arm of the government in execution of this strategy. While the teachings of Chanakya are immortalised in his magnum opus "Arthashatra", but I dare say most of the arm chair strategists who quote him endlessly have hardly read it; their views have been conjured or conceived in our Sand Model Rooms or the War Rooms which have been  aptly named Chanakya or Kautilya. 

Anyway, this piece is as divorced from strategy as chalk is from cheese. Today being a Sunday we were just idling away post lunch and not being fond of the afternoon siesta, we, my better half and self decided to go on a date. That is how Chanakya was discussed, Delhiwallahs  would have guessed it, The Chanakya is a Mall, which is not  for the  hoi polloi. Staying in Chanakyapuri, we thought ourselves to be the Elites too and sure enough in our Sunday best, we stepped into the haloed precincts of The Chanakya. We were like Alice in Wonderland, having stepped into this modern day fantasy world, we were lost at first, trying to fathom, whether it would be propah for us to step in and ask the cost of a few of the items on display. Actually I was in one of those benevolent moods, after admiring some from the displays outside, we gathered the courage to step into one of them and decided to look at the price tag of one of the shawls on display, it was an outrageous 75000/-. My magnanimity and benevolence went ducking for cover immediately and we sneaked out without being noticed. Well frankly we were not noticed even when we stepped in, as the sales persons know their customers well and can differentiate with window shoppers like us, giving us the cold shoulder reminding us without actually saying it that we don't belong there.  To be honest, it is not that one can't afford a 75 grand Shawl, it is just that the cost doesn't seem justified. Our middle class mindset probably keeps us grounded. An occasional extravagance once in a while is relished, but this was definitely not. To be honest i am not sure even if i were a billionaire,  i would still be able to indulge in this. We were wiser and steered clear of the Rolex, Mont Blanc or Ralph Lauren outlets. We came across a small stall with some desi sweets with the tagline, "Be a monster..eat a laddoo". Intrigued I asked him what was monster like in eating a laddoo, he looked at us  urchins with utter disdain and explained that desi sweets are not the flavour here and thus partaking one was almost a cardinal sin earning them the moniker of the monster. We then sought refuge in the Foodhall, knowing here even if the prices were exorbitant it would still not tax my wallet. After all how much could bakery items, spices, veggies and fruits cost ? That basement store provided us some respite as there were some exotic varieties of these were on display which would put any supermarket in Europe to shame. They boasted of Cheese from Belgium, France, Netherlands apart from some local ones here, Thai Basil, Mexican Cherry Tomatoes, California Avocados and what have you!

We finally decided to settle down to a well deserved cup of Darjeeling tea, which unfortunately was not served in China but in a disposable ripple glass and relished it, looking around the gentry which was quite comfortable and at home in the surroundings.  We could see that we didn't belong here and so decided to bring curtains to our adventure and returned home.