No bread? Some cake then...

Till recently, recession was like the pink elephant in the room that no one was supposed to talk about. But, suddenly, it's rather fashionable to do so. So you have everyone from business professionals to professional girl friends all dropping an erudite word or two about 'market forces', all the while flashing their multi-crore deals, solitaire rocks, and high-value horse-trading (aka IPL!) and stressing how their fees/projects remain unaltered because true value always finds its rightful price! Ahem!

But even among real people, recession has wrought some interesting changes. For one, the cautious Indian spender is making a slow comeback. Sure, shopping, eating out, and the movies remain the chief pastimes, but reckless high-value purchases have made way for savvy buys.

Indeed, VFM is the acronym of the times, be it multi-tiered ticket prices at multiplexes or sensibly priced restaurants running to packed houses. My fave VFM comfort Chinese joint in Colaba, Ling’s Pavilion, still has a queue if you turn up sans reservation, while 10 minutes down the road, the crusty reservation policy of Indigo has softened considerably; a friend of mine actually got a table for dinner on the same day that she called; no one-week wait!

The shopping scene isn't that different either. I read somewhere in one of the gossip rags (written rather disdainfully) that Deepika Padukone was seen shopping at the Mango sale. If it's true, I would say Ms Padukone is being pragmatic, sharp, and thoroughly trendsetting. It's time the false snobbery against sales disappeared anyway, because the maximum crowd I have ever seen at über-luxe designer stores like Galleria at the Trident is either when there is an event (i.e. free wine and cheese) or at the 70% sales!

But while the material world is being carefully reconfigured, the spiritual world is on a steroid boom! Pretty much everyone I know is either on a quest for inner peace or has found it already. From tarot reading to past-life therapy to bio-energy healing, there is a mojo for every type of tormented soul.

But new-age spirituality is a bit like couture fashion and what was hot last season is so not right now. Thus, while Art of Living was the big thing a few years back, the mantra of the moment is Soka Gakkai Buddhism with its signature nam-myoho-renge-kyo chanting.

Maybe it's just coincidence that this frantic quest for peace comes at a time when the economy and the world at large is going down the tube, but it's a fact that I see a lot less perturbed people, whether they are jobless, retrenched or just plain undecided about the course of life. I, of course, feel terribly out of place with my ready stream of angst!

Fortunately (or unfortunately) sexual transgressions are on the backburner as well. With job uncertainty, dwindling investment returns, and rising costs, casual sex and affairs are the last thing on people's minds. Not to mention that the dating and mating game is getting to be an expensive proposition. With the average price of drinks at Rs600 in any decent bar, getting a girl drunk to get lucky just doesn’t seem VFM anymore!

However cheesy it sounds, people are resorting to true love in these lean times. So while the married are turning to their spouses with new enthusiasm (the sugar daddies are suddenly AWOL), the serial daters are all hastily finding life partners and tying the knot (economies of scale to keep the home fires burning, darling!).

And what about my tribe, aka the singletons? The last word on surviving recession is the NY blog DABA (aka Dating A Banker Anonymous). Those girls are apparently now slowly eyeing LA in search of the media moguls, now that the bankers have tanked and entertainment is a recession-proof industry.

Smart idea, except that, unfortunately for us in Bombay, movies and money are in the same city! But I'd say there is no harm trying to go a bit north... from Nariman Point to Bandra, perhaps; you never know who you may find!