Based on shops' names...

Here the shops are named after people, mostly. Eg: the one in which I spent most of the time in Ireland ..Penny’s.. Or Claire’s or Siobhan’s or Pat O’ Connors’ or Linda’s or even pubs named as Dan’s Tavern or so. But it’s so different from our local shops in India. There we had all the possible names. From the nameless shops in junctions, which are locally known as the ‘shop of ’ to those numerous <ABC> Stores, where ABC can be replaced with virtually anything.

There most local textile shops where ‘Textiles’ and most local hotels will be ‘ Hotel or ‘ Restaurant and most tailoring shops will be ‘ Tailors and every pharmacy will be Medical Stores.

When I was 3 or 4 yrs old, my dad had my clothes done in ‘Happy Tailors’. He cut my hair in ‘New Hair Dressing Saloon’ though it was a very old shop, in which he used to cut his hair when he was a boy! And my mom shopped for my clothes ONLY in

‘Good Morning Stores’. It didn’t get to me how funny the names sounded, till I went to school.

My friends asked: “swathi, from where did you buy this from?”

“Good Morning Stores”

***giggles giggles and more giggles ***

How funny is that?

I was made fun of for virtually every shop I / my parents went. And that too even by my grown-up neighbors. And that was not even for my choice.

Finally, getting desperate, I told mom,

“Could you please take me to a shop with some good name? All my friends are making fun of me, for ‘Happy Tailors’ and ‘Good Morning Stores’ “. I want to tell them that I bought something from a shop with a respectable name.

May be that was when she realized for the first time, the complexity and variety of problems a 6 yr old can face!

But she didn’t take me to any shop with fancy names. Because obviously she was saving money.

Now when I look back, I still don’t understand why they made fun of me (and NOT my parents), for not going to fancy shops. Here I go to “Mary’s Discount Stores”, or “€2 Shop”(where everything is 2 €) to save money. But still, I am not being made fun of. At least openly!

May be my kids will be made fun of for MY 2€ Shop visits?

May be kids are evaluated by the choices their parents make , hmm… even on the basis of the kind of shops they visit?