Have you seen how the refrigerators look in ads? Eggs, jam, soft drinks, bread and fruits are kept in such a way that even if you aren’t hungry, you want to have a bite. At my parents’ home the fridge never looked like that. The big vessel containing the dosai maavu for the week simply ruined any attempt to make the fridge look good. I always yearned for a fridge that looked as good as in the ads, and so this Sunday morning I stopped at the Nilgiris supermarket on Poonamalee High Road, a few metres from Ega Theatre.

I have been to supermarkets before, but Nilgiris is way better than the average neighbourhood supermarket. What it almost did was renew my interest in cooking. The food items – the jams, the marmalade, the mayonnaise, the sauces and the syrups are so neatly packed that you just want to have a bottle of each. In spite of my valiant attempts to resist buying stuff I don’t need, I did end up buying quite a bit.

Nilgiris must be boon for the Chennai’s businesswomen, who amidst a hectic work routine have to ensure a great meal at home for the kids and husbands. It must also be a culinary paradise for the yuppies, who get wide-eyed at the branded stuff that occupies almost every shelf of the supermarket.

I got stuff that I could not have dreamed of getting from the supermarket across the road from my home in Triplicane. Ex: Fish pickle and broken wheat bread loaf. They aren’t exactly a combination but now that I have tasted both, separately, I know that sooner or later I am going to again stop at a Nilgiris outlet.

Let me also get in a word about the atmosphere. It does get a bit cramped as you push your trolley to fetch your weekly requirements, but I hardly minded that. As a first timer, I had a lot to gape at. I would be able to put my point across better with photographs I think. Well, there was also a bonus. A supermarket is the last place you would expect to find stunning women, but they were all there.

Nigiris is also a haven for snack eaters. To the corner of the supermarket, there is a counter for cakes and puffs and the like. I didn’t get any of those, but by the looks and crowd in the front of the counter, I guess they were sumptuous. I did get chips and kadala mittai.

Another area where Nilgiris is head and shoulders about the average supermarket is its cold storage. Here’s where I would shop if I were a guy who ate food out of packets and cans.

When I got back home, I tried to arrange the stuff just like in the ads. They did make the fridge – now all of 10 years old – look better. But I would need something more than Nilgiris to make my fridge look better.