Confessions of a shopaholic : Pune Diaries

I was not a shopaholic before I came to Pune. May be, my salary as a CAT instructor, about 4 years back, just allowed me to pay my house rent, plan my trips home twice a month and eat twice a day at a mess, leaving me with not much choice, but to lead a frugal life. I used to visit malls even then, stare at branded stuff with wide eyes, check out the prices and then leave the place with a heavy heart and a wallet which chose to remain light always! Ever since I started earning, I could not bring myself to buy a stuff which I could not afford with my hard earned money. Thankfully, until today I don’t have a credit card, coz I don believe in that system at all, which my dad feels is one good trait I have inherited from him! And I absolutely agree to that! However, I did decide I would shop a lot, once I get a better job. The pleasure of joining IT industry was partly because of that too, to buy myself the stuff, I had refrained from buying because of my meager 4 digit salary per month, then!

And when I joined CTS, there was a limitless joy in replenishing my wardrobe and my personal items. In 3 months, my wardrobe, my shoe rack, my book shelf and personal rack containing other paraphernalia increased almost 10 times their size! Well, when I watched Confessions of a shopaholic recently, I was not surprised, to the extent I related to Rebecca Bloomwood (the protagonist of the movie), though I was not an extreme case like her either! But somehow, the shopping habit clung to me like a betal on my back and I indulged in shopping almost every weekend. And when you have a good company who is as crazy as you about shopping, nothing like it! I might have spent a great deal of my salary on books, clothes, handbags, shoes, cosmetics, accessories and so on, much to the chagrin of my parents and disbelief of my husband, who was then my fiancée! Not that they were surprised or perplexed at my shopping spree, but they were appalled by the size of my cupboard which looked as though it was going to burst one day! My cosmetic collection was much enviable then, with every brand taking its due credit on the day it was used. But the most interesting of all was my mammoth shoe collection, which actually surprised me too! Only when I started counting them, I had doubts if I was suffering from shopaholism. I would refrain from giving a number here! My father was sure, I had shoplifted and my mom mocked at me saying, I could possibly run a shop with that collection! Karthik made it clear that those shoes were not entering his home, (our home) after marriage! I have not yet given them away, and so found a suitable shelter for them, Bharuch – where I had packed all those shoes in a huge bag and carried it home!

Now past an year and more after marriage, I am a rehabilitated shopaholic. I can advise people on how to shop frugally, but am not claiming that I have been cured permanently as currently am at a stage, where shopping is of little use to me  So till then, the Devil has all the privilege to preach the Bible!