It is more than a week since we landed in Canton MI, and I have a fair idea of the topography of the city and the places that we have visited. During mornings I occupy myself testing the strength of my legs surprising the motorists at crossings and the evenings are spent window shopping. At this juncture, It is only window shopping because we do not know what to buy, can’t find what we want (in case we think of something and try to locate it), do not know where to look for it, feel everything very expensive (our mind automatically converts dollars in to rupees), and actually don’t need anything. Still, we visited Meijers, Kroger, Kohl’s and Lowe’s and also Bed and bath, Target, JCPenney , Ikea and many more. All are chain stores. One is a departmental store, one is clothing, one is hardware and so on but I can not remember which is which. Every store is two foot ball field size, sells some of everything else and all of them sell cards, chocolates, Jewellery , house hold items and gifts. Soft drinks, ice cream, pizza and Burger of course are every where. Most of these sell prescription medicines and off the shelf drugs and three fourths of the pharmacies are filled with clothes, gifts, cards and chocolates. It will take time for me to disentangle these stores, find what their main commodities are, find my way around and get what I want, which in fact is nothing!

While Bhanu and my wife lose themselves amongst rows and rows of bags, foot wear and clothing and sundry items, I spend time observing the American shopping pattern. As I see here, this is how you shop. You have your dinner and start shopping. Park your car in front of the store, walk through the automatic doors, grab a shopping cart which is half the size of your car, go to the soft drink or ice cream stall conveniently located inside the store, buy a gallon of soft drink, coffee or milk shake or/and an ice cream cone (preferably multi coloured) equally large and tall, place it in the holder provided for the purpose on the cart and leisurely start moving around the store. You take a cart even if you intend buying only a pin. The logic being, on your way to the pin, if you find things which you can not resist buying (you will find lot of things which you do not need but can not resist) you will need the cart. You can’t hold all of them in the hand leaving space for the pin, you need something to carry your cola/ice cream and you can’t walk back half a mile for the cart if you feel the necessity half way through. So you move around dumping things in to the cart, partly consume the cola, milk shake or ice cream, pay for the stuff that you did not need, forget the pin, come out, empty the cart into the boot, shift the soft drink/ice cream container to the holder next to the steering wheel, and drive off. If you do need the pin, you can always come back tomorrow.



After a few days of observation and assimilations, I had enough of shopping and tried to find other things to keep myself occupied.

My wife and Bhanu however continued their piligrimage to the stores. I observed them closely and found two things hitherto unknown to me.

My wife has an extra pair of legs concealed some where in her body which she uses while shopping. Her normal legs can’t walk more than fifteen minutes in a park and they will almost fall off if you exert them more. Then you take her shopping and she quietly releases these shopping legs and puts them on. These legs can go on and on and on for hours, walking miles and miles in a shopping mall or a store and they always remain strong and keep asking for more. But the legs are not interchangeable.

Now coming to Bhanu, she has a different time frame than we normal humans. If you have a little interest in our ‘Puranas’, have read or heard about the difference in time frame of humans, ‘Brahma’ and ‘Naaraayana’, you will have known about the ‘Kalpas,’ ‘Manvantaras,’ and ‘Yugas’. Some millions or billions of human years make one ‘Yuga’ and some millions or billions of yugas make a manvantara, millions of which go on to make a kalpa etc etc. Millions of these Kalpas actually make Brahma’s half day and millions of Brahma’s years is the time taken for Naaraayana to blink his eyes once or half. I am not very sure of the figures and do not intend troubling your brains unnecessarily. What I mean to say is that these entities Brahma and Naaraayana have a time frame which differs a lot from us humans and so does Bhanu. Her day has about thirty six hours and she can always manage an extra ten to twelve hours of shopping in spite of the office work from office, office work from home, domestic chores and personal needs which themselves need more than twenty four.

I tried to find some useful work and looked around in the garage and back yard. I found that the pool which had just been uncovered after the winter, needed cleaning and have started working on it. I have learnt to operate the filter, back wash, vacuum, and the under water cleaner. I hope to make it fit for swimming in another week. It is a time consuming work.

I cleared enough material in the garage to allow me to lift my head and found a bicycle hanging up side down from the roof. I have taken it out prematurely from its ‘hung till dead’ punishment and have given it for repairs. It is estimated to cost fifty dollars. One of Bhanu’s friends bought an almost new bicycle in a garage sale for thirty five dollars.

On my rounds I have noticed some signs of garage sales during the coming weekend. I will see them and come back.