In need of fresh ideas

MYSTERY GUEST

Shopping for vegetables in airconditioned, spiffy surroundings makes a wonderful change from doing it the usual sweaty way in dirty mandis. But like all good things, it has its downsides...

To start with, parking. The Reliance Fresh outlet opposite Max Hospital in Saket, New Delhi, is very advantageously located, but for the fact that it has no parking space for cars.

There are "no parking" boards hanging all along the stretch of road in front, but I see cars parked there and ask my driver to wedge the vehicle into the tiny space between two cars, ignoring the wagging finger of the man sitting on a bench. After all, I couldn't possibly lug my heavy shopping bags far.

Inside, the walls are lined with neat rows of vegetables, stacked beautifully in baskets, their price tags peeping out. There are many varieties of apple, both red and green; kiwi fruit; pineapples sliced into rings and vacuum-sealed; an assortment of cut vegetables "" cabbages, spring onions, babycorn, carrot slices for a Chinese something-or-other; fresh coriander, a few chillies, a one-inch piece of ginger and half a lemon for green chutney, and so on "" similarly seal-packed.

Wonderfully liberating for the hassled working woman, I'm sure, but aren't cut vegetables bad for health? Anyway, I pick up a slice of pumpkin, which looks good for a single meal. It seems reasonably priced at Rs 10, and I ask the salesperson to weigh it. It turns out to be 0.206 kg only "" which means Rs 50 a kg "" and I promptly put it down. So much for Reliance's claim of competitive prices!

Thankfully, the vegetables are reasonably fresh "" if you overlook the drooping, blackened okra, sprouting potatoes and over-ripe mangoes. The stock is all right too "" there is colocasia (arbi) in two sizes and a range of cheeses like Cheddar, Brie, Camembert (but strangely, no Parmesan) "" and I got most things on my list.

It was only later, much later, that I realised I had left half my stuff behind, and no one, not even the cashier to whom I'd made a casual comment about how well he'd managed to fit everything into one bag, had drawn my attention to it. But that, I suppose, was partly my fault, since not even the best-trained salesperson in the most organised of retail chains can save me from my own carelessness.

Score: 6/10 for the airconditioned comfort, if nothing else.