When she walked in the store, full of vibrant colours, textures, designs, and patterns, she was amazed at how beautiful and attractive everything was.

The bright yellow focus lights accentuated the beautifully half-draped sarees on every woman who was busy admiring the colour and self in the mirror while in the back of her mind, she compared the price she paid and the returns she was about to take home

The salesmen played tunes nothing less than the pipers’ melodies to keep the women engaged, some mentioned the origins, some the history, some focused on the patterns others tried to pull attention to the texture, and some brought in ROI (return of investment) as a point to ponder on, some simply tried using the charm, some tried very hard to find the best fit, some just tried convincing the one in hand was the best fit, some bargained on price and some merely tried to close the deal to see the women smile.

In all this gambit, she wondered what was kept for her, she walked into the part of the shop where she knew the likes of her were stored in plenty, slowly and steadily she viewed the stacked sarees, watching every folded treasure with intrigue yet from far. she wondered what colours she might choose this time, and would the texture be the same, would she want to be braver this time to experiment with new patterns and designs, she wondered if the origins and history would add more value to the look, she carried… make her look elegant and poise.

Just when she was about to move towards that one thing which caught her eye, there came a magician… let’s call him the salesman this time, working his magic with the best of words, describing the folded treasure in lyrical verse, he knotted the knots of dream she possible had not contemplated on, he assured her the delight not dreamt of. The twinkle in his eyes, the ring in his voice mesmerised her, she followed him to his stack, and he slowly unravelled the mysteries he held, one after the other.

He brought out different opportunities for her to choose…

some worked exactly like she wanted, some made her look phenomenal, some made her feel like a queen, while some she just wanted to grab with both her hands and never let go, she didn’t zero down on any, not as fast as the salesman anticipated, she waited patiently and searched through the stack, comparing, evaluating, wondering if this was the right choice she wanted to live with.

By now the growing impatience of the salesman was visible, the sense of control that he so advertised was being tested to the core, she calmly and peacefully sorted the stack, picked a couple and kept them aside, she asked the salesman a few more questions, the durability, the ROI, if this was the trend and then assured him while she moved around the shop she would come back to him to get what she wants.

And so she moved from one corner of the shop to the other, and his eyes followed, she glanced at him and reassured that she would come back to him, he did feel in complete control of her choice, of his product and more so of the idea that he could deny her the pleasure of the best product shop could offer and she would plead him to reconsider…. a little farfetched but human mind is capable of dreams one can hardly imagine

She moved through the shop and with every change in the fabric, pattern, texture, design, origin, history and what not, she gave herself a gift of choice. Contrary to the salesman’s belief she was free to choose, his slightest inclination of denying her the choice she had made … opened doors for her that she had not pondered upon earlier…

Here at his corner while the salesman engaged himself with a new customer, replicating the effort and justifying the sense of control which he thought he had on her…..

She picked up a soft beautifully woven, intricately designed, elaborately styled saree to suit her need and made her way to the billing counter to strike a deal that suited her…

Still giving him the glance of reassurance that someone somewhere might fall for the sense of control he thought he had on variables beyond his reach.