Recently one of my readers sent me a direct message inquiring about “Mrs. Kohli” my friend, who often features in goofy anecdotes in my pieces, “For quite some time Mrs. Kohli hasn’t even made a guest appearance -- Is she on a vacation with supernatural beings?”
Well, when I called her a few weeks back, she seemed super thrilled! I asked her where she was, as the background chaos seemed to annihilate my gregarious friend’s ever happy vibes. She screamed into my ears, “I am on a ‘badla-shopping spree’ in Dubai Mall. I wish you were here. And in the evening, we are flying to the Maldives, again revenge and all, you know na, that’s the ‘in thing’. Try it and thank me later.” The reply left me flummoxed. ‘Badla’ in Hindi means revenge. What is this lady wanting to avenge by going into bizarre shopping sprees and then on a holiday?
“What revenge?” I queried. I could visualise her, the pink Hermes Birkin tote on her shoulders, the animated, pretty eyes, her animal print face mask moving in and out as she shrieked through it, walking around in her Versace La Greca sweat pants!
“Nav, revenge against the virus, obviously! I will post all my pictures under #Revengeverything, on IG. Oh, by the way, I’ve had a ‘revenge’ haircut, bobbed it with red streaks …”
The incessant banter continued for a while and I missed Dubai even more.
It was a coincidence that the same evening I watched the movie ‘Cruella’ where the protagonist is heard spewing her anger: “they say that there are five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I’d like to add one more- REVENGE!” That’s precisely what we’ve all gone through from the time the pandemic began and just like Mrs. Kohli most people are in the ‘avenging mode’!
Revenge shopping is in full swing, the malls in my town, which is called the ‘Millennium City’ have been seized by a huge swarm of shoppers, who are making up for all the bleak days spent at home. Doubly vaccinated and masked, they almost feel invincible. My friend and her family spend all their waking hours in the malls during the weekend. The daughter, who’s a teenager is venting out her frustration of not being able to join her college classes offline, she splurges on clothes and nail art. When I joined her last weekend, I realised that it seemed to be an endless spree, because somewhere lurks a fear of being recaptured within locked doors. A pair of skinny jeans is what I wanted to buy as I donned on the garb of vengeance. The teenager (who belongs to Gen Z) with a frown, informed me that skinnies are ‘cancelled’ as is the laughing emoji that has tears flowing and so are side-partings! The trip to the mall was quite informative that way, ‘cancel culture’ has smothered so many things, Gen Z is relentless like that. So, I ended up buying a pair of baggies and I agree, they are snug!
Foodies have gone full throttle into ‘revenge dining’ as restaurants have a long waiting queue of diners in spite of reservations, almost two weeks in advance. Delhi, a foodie’s hub, lured us into innumerable bingeing sprees. Now our weekends comprise of long walks in Lodi Garden, Deer Park, or any of the gardens near ancient monuments; working up an appetite; then we stuff our faces with various kinds of ‘parathas’ or ‘chole bhature’ and piping hot tea! Well, it’s more like soaking in a glimmer of normality, with shades of denial, of self-preservation amid a sea of Covid-infested insanity.
“Revenge” is sweet but could soon turn sour with the latest strain on the block, Omicron making its appearance, to nudge us out of our complacency. The best thing would now be to follow all Covid protocols and keep our guards up. I couldn’t agree more with, Jodi Picoult when she says, “When you begin a journey of revenge, start by digging two graves: one for your enemy, and one for yourself.”
Navanita Varadpande is an author based in Gurgaon, India. Twitter: @VpNavanita
