Viviana or viva city is a huge new mall at Thane. Covering an elephantine area of around a million square feet (which is more than a luxury in an overly populated and overly cramped city), it is said to be a true shopper's paradise. To test the acclaimed 'paradise' status, we decided to buy my brother's gift from there.
We chose a weekend. It was useless. The said million square feet space seemed like a million square feet fish market, when public of voracious appetite came to grab the new sale everywhere in the mall. So we picked up a silent weekday morning. There was only one problem with the chosen day and time- there was more staff than the customers.
Viviana is full of big names such as Lifestyle, Shopper's Stop, Esbeda, Metro, Mufti, Global Desi, W, Hypercity, And, Inc.5, Forever 21, Puma, Max, Globus, Pantaloons etc., etc., etc. Any renowned brand you talk of- is there.
Like sale hungry people we moved on from one shop to the other greeting the sophisticated staff with a not so natural smile. I admired the newly arranged shops and the helping staff. The clothes for sale were also of great quality. But one thing pinged me. And that was after the acclaimed '50% off' board also, most of the things seemed too expensive. It is not that we cannot afford it, but it did not seem to give the value for money. So, giving up the idea of buying the gift from Viviana, we were about to leave. Suddenly, my eyes came across a store named 'Being Human'.
I knew 'Being Human' is Salman Khan's foundation. I was aware about its charitable work. Just keen to see its clothing line, we walked in. We were greeted by a genuine smile of a smartly dressed young man. I simply picked up the first T-shirt in the first row which simply caught my attention because of its simplicity. We made a decision of buying that bright, simple T-shirt for my bright, simple brother.
After my instant decision of buying the T-shirt, my mother (who had probably got bored and tired of my window-shopping) suggested me to buy a gift for my nephew from the same store, in case they have a children's collection. Searching the same, I was browsing through the T-shirts. The only salesman, who warmly greeted us, came to our assistance. After I asked him about the children's collection, he again smiled and said something weird which was not very legible. Not of much help, I moved on to the next rack of T-shirts. Then I noticed him interacting with another customer in gestures, only to realize he was deaf and dumb.
It simply moved me. The way he was warmly and easily dealing with customers was amazing. We took no time in purchasing the T-shirt and we moved on to the billing counter. The '40% off' was not for the chosen T-shirt. It was not cheap. But I thought it was worth the money. It's quality was good, the store employed a young, deaf and dumb person and it gave me a psychological satisfaction of contributing to the charity.
We came out smilingly thinking 'Jai Salman Khan'. He surely is the only hero Bollywood has made. There are many actors and stars but he is the only hero.
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