The mall and me

It’s 9 p.m. on a Saturday night and Select City Walk, the upscale mall in Saket, is bathed in bright yellow lights. It’s fairly crowded considering the time, but then Christmas is just around the corner. I have spent many glorious Saturdays in this vast retail expanse—watching movies at PVR, discussing them over coffee, browsing through the books at Crossword and the dresses at Mango. But usually, once I’m done shopping, just like everyone else here at the mall, I leave and go home. Not tonight, though. Tonight I’m here to stay.

I’m checking in to Svelte, the allsuite hotel at the mall that opened its doors in June 2008. Their people rang to suggest Svelte as a weekend getaway and it piqued my curiosity. Just staying in a mall sounds a little nuts, let alone for a vacation. I’m a regular at Select City Walk, but I was oblivious to Svelte’s existence until today—there are no hoardings or banners giving directions, just a small sign that leads to a discreet basement entrance. But the unassuming exterior makes way for a plush hotel spread across eight floors. My suite is on the 7th, and it’s really quite something—an elegant mix of style and comfort. Wooden interiors and leather furnishings, with a kitchenette, electronic safe, and a well-stocked refrigerator.

On the face of it, it looks like any other five-star—the all-day menu, the staff and the lobby look much the same. There’s a wellequipped fitness centre and a rooftop swimming pool on the top floor, as you would expect. But the service here is much more personalised. At Svelte, you get the freedom to do up your personal suite the way you want, which is unheard of in “normal” hotels. And there’s a service called chefs-on-call where, as the manager tells me, “a chef comes directly to your suite and rustles up something there. At any time of day.” Much cosier than room service. No wonder the dining lounge is empty at 10:30 p.m.—why would you eat there, when the cooks can come to you, not to mention all the pubs and restaurants that are literally on your doorstep?

It feels funny, knowing that next door to my suite are all these coffee shops, stores, restaurants, movie halls and nightclubs. There’s something great about being able to stroll to your night out in a city like Delhi. Downstairs, I bump into my Svelte neighbour, MTV VJ Nikhil Chinappa. Turns out he’s here for a DJ Night at ai, the nightclub in MGF, the mall next door. Sounds like a good idea!

ai is one of two hot clubs at the MGF—Manre is the other. So the mall is transformed. Families give way to nocturnal revellers, all dolled up in clubwear. And ai is, predictably, heaving. The brainchild of restaurateur A.D. Singh, ai is spread across three spaces—a Japanese restaurant of the same name, a nightclub called the Love Hotel, and the Jazz Lounge. I find myself rubbing shoulders with all kinds of Bollywood celebs, chilling over caipirinhas and salsa rhythms. It’s a stark contrast to what lies outside the doors. Come 12:30, I slowly walk back through an empty mall, and for the first time, the place feels alien. With just mannequins for company, it feels like a different world. Living in a mall is all the more weird at night.

The next morning, with my head throbbing, I force myself out of bed to take a look around. It’s 10 a.m. and most of the stores are now open. I see the magic words “discount” and “sale” all around. Naturally, I call my friends, and twenty minutes later, they’re in my suite, gaping. From a plethora of choices, we opt for a quick breakfast at the Coffee Bean and then a movie. No fretting over traffic jams and serpentine cues. This is home now. Our terrain. Jim Carrey’s wild antics in Yes Man are positively annoying, so we have lunch at the familiar food court to get over them. And then we feel sleepy. So, we pop up to the suite for a nap. The rest of the day is spent chilling out at Barista, getting ourselves pampered silly at Frank Provost, the spa salon in the mall. A mall day has never been quite this easy.

On my way to the lift, I bump into Dr Hani Dostinova and wife Toni Atanasovski, diplomats from the Republic of Macedonia. They’re seasoned travellers, having visited the country eight times already, and they usually stay in five-star hotels. But this August, on a six-month visit, they tried Svelte instead, a place they now consider home.

“I am so glad we decided to stay here as opposed to other five stars and serviced apartments,” says Dr Dostinova. “Everything’s just next door, including my wife’s hospital.” He points to a glowing Toni, about to deliver anytime. The sentiment is echoed by their neighbour, another diplomat, this time from Brazil— the suite’s first ever guest, Flavio Werneck. “I’ve been staying here ever since it opened,” he says. “There’s a lot of personal attention, and it works wonderfully for expats on a longer stay.”

It’s a curious clientele—DJs and diplomats. Suitable really for such a strange and unique place. But it didn’t really feel like I escaped the city. I knew what the mall had to offer, so during the day it felt like any other weekend—the movie counter, the shops and coffee places are all too familiar.

But then, it’s not about doing different things, so much as doing things differently. The experience of staying and waking up in a mall, of having everything at your disposal more than makes up for the lack of new attractions, and is worth a try. The concept is a first for India, and the hotel more than lives up to your expectations. The staff is courteous and polite, the suites are spectacular.

So, even though the experience of waking up in this buy-buy land felt alien to me, I can see why it works for certain people. For the likes of Dr Dostinova and his neighbour Werneck, “it’s a home away from home.”