UB City : A Pretentious Place For The Nouveau Riche

I was in UB City this Sunday, just wanted to visit the place as I had heard a lot about it and wanted to see for myself what the big deal was.

My first reaction was ‘Oh my God, this place is boring and it sucks’. I would have any day preferred whiling away my time in Central or Forum Mall than this over-hyped place.

The first corner that we checked out was Art-Chutney where Puja Bahri’s collection was in display. I am not an art critique but I do have taste for photography, sketches and paintings. I can appreciate Tyabji Mehta, MF Hussain, Mario Miranda etc. Keeping that in mind, Puja Bahri’s collection seemed drab. She has her limitations and seems to be obsessed with kettle and teapots; almost all her paintings were unidimensional with the same kind of facial structure replicated in all paintings. And the price of the painting ranged from 80k to 5lacs, depending on size of the canvas.

We moved out of this place as all I could spot was mish-mash chutney but no art. We next entered Good Earth, another ostentatious place where people were being looted right under our nose. The unassuming phirangis were being taken for a ride as they were busy buying saucers and cups for 2k and dining table-cloth for 4.5k. The entire place was tacky with smells of aromatic oil being sprinkled all round to bring in some kind of charm. Spellbinding it was, I couldn’t utter a word. We made our way out in a tizzy before we would faint.

I thought it would be prudent to visit some stores like Louis Vuitton or Diesel, at least it would be a better timepass. But the stores were filled with overblown and heavily priced stuff. Diesel jacket for 37k and LV bags for 45k, shoes for 15k, watches worth 1lac. After walking around a few more stores like Burberry etc, we were done. The place was extremely nauseatic and unwelcoming.

We finally landed in the foodcourt. Yes, a whole lot of people like us were at the FC. That was probably the only place that seemed to have affordable items. Since it was snack time, we sat in the Cafe Noir and ordered three different flavors of coffee for the three of us. Three coffees cost us Rs.325/- and I was left wondering that people complain about Cafe Coffee Day and Barista being costly. The coffee was good, nice warm and smooth taste. That was the only good and enjoyable thing.

Finally, back in the parking lot we paid Rs.30/- for 2 hour parking and I was really glad. I was expecting the charges to be Rs.50/- an hour, but thank God for small mercies like this. Unless I am in MG Road and with no better work to do, I don’t think I will be visiting UB City. Its a fake place with fake people having fake accents and fake sense of dressing. Visiting such places tells us precisely why we have toy-boys and gold-diggers around us, because there are people faking relationships for such materialistic life. Its a pretentious place for the nouveau riche!