It was my wife’s birthday and I decided to take her out to Total Mall @ Madiwala for some shopping. Also since there was a karaoke competition, I decided to enroll her and ask her to sing a song accompanied by lyrics to the public. I myself wanted to sing a song, but decided that I did not want to screw up other people’s pleasant evening shopping, so kept quiet.
Pic courtesy: www.bangalorebeats.com
The total mall as you would know in Madiwala is refurbished over the old madiwala shopping complex that was supposed to actually house all the grocery stalls out on that road. For whatever reasons such as maybe high rentals or otherwise, these grocery vendors did not occupy the complex, leaving it in tatters. Slowly but steadily the commerical value of this piece of real estate was well underestimated and the government had a high priced property which was not getting properly utilized. With the advent of low cost retailing such as Total (I say low cost as compared to malls such as Forum, which was of a high standard), they took up this space and transformed it into what you see above. Note the older building in the last four floors and you know how bad it was!
I was expecting a TOTAL surprise, and ended up with a TOTAL disaster. Before I bash up TOTAL on this blog, some good points about the shopping. My wife participated in the Karaoke contest with the song Tere Mere Pyaar Ke Charche har zaban par …. a beauty!
The lyrics were on the screen and all one had to do was get used to this and sing along! My wife did sing well enough, more better that what I thought she sung at home! And I did enjoy those moments with my son too. After that when the crowds started piling up, I decided to go shopping within the mall which gave away some of the ridiculous arrangements of this mall. Here I list a few of them:
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Right in the middle of the mall where people must have been walking is a CD store occupying all the space
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The only eateries include MacD, Serengeti and yet another restaurant (no food court or nothing of that sort)
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Rides for very young kids like the horse, car, etc (swing along) costs 20 bucks which I thought was meaningless!
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The mall is designed in such a way that once you enter the shopping area in a floor the only way out is to take a full round of all stalls, and go up another floor, hold your breath, take a full round all over again and then reach the billing counter. Damn, I wonder what these people were thinking when they built the mall this way. Absolutely ridiculous waste of time and energy.
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The AC was terrible or non existent making me sweat like hell all the time, its a pity such a big mall felt like a furnace (so much for pleasant shopping)
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The travelator (Total’s modified meaning of eslacator) is pure hell served to you. Twice the length of the normal elevator, and double the distance to reach the other end meant only longer walks and even more outrageous waste of time
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Just when you thought you could get things billed and get out, you had to remember your personal things kept at one floor below! Waste time again and over again.
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The staircase leading to the car park wont even accomodate one thin person around the corners (landing area) – guess only animals like cats and dogs can go through these. Absolute horror.
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My wife being in the architecture field puked at such a design that the government had come up with years ago.
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And just when you thought everything was over, the absolutely horribly designed car park strikes you in the face. Even a car such as my swift diesel brushed against something on its roof, one can only imagine what cars such as scorpios which are SUVs will undergo in this car park. Look for yourself
We did shop a few things in this mall, but vowed never to return again. If you were to heed my advice, take your family to the FORUM mall. Its like comparing well bred labradors or golden retreivers with rabid street mongrels. My two cents, have a good family outing, not a TOTAL DISASTER.
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