Oh industry.

It is not everyday that a native like myself gets to get out of town to do some shopping. It’s the bread and butter issues, you see. Thus, I should treasure every moment and savour every second that I do encounter the material pleasures of the world out there.

While passing a store, so appropriately ironic that it should be named “Apothecary and Company” (you shall see the irony soon), I witnessed the much talked about new fragrance with anti-depressing properties. The quiet joy I reveled in finding the much heard product was much shadowed by the outburst of elation the sales executive exuded in welcoming me to the store.

“That is the world’s first anti-depressant fragrance!” the exec cried out, clasping one’s hands in great epiphanic revelation. The smile on one’s face would have lit a thousand towns of incandescent bulbs. The obliging exec went on to offer me a sample of the said fragrance. It had a citrus head note, with a floral body and a musky heart.

In short, it’s not my kind of fragrance.

If there were anything anti-depressing about the place, it would have to be the sales exec. The smile and the laugh in one’s laugh was so infectious and contagious that I could help but felt instantly uplifted.

I left the shop empty handed. A shop that caters mainly to models and ladies just didn’t have anything for me. But I left the shop feeling the positive cheer of the sales exec beaming after me.

A round around the shopping mall and fifteen minutes later, I passed a corridor opposite the shop. I caught a glimpse of the sparkling and exuberant person who was so keen to offer the fragrance to me. Then I saw the exec; he was huddled in a dark corner of the dimly lit shop. No smile on his face. Staring blankly at his fingers… looking moody and lost.

Oh industry. What price, commercialism…?