There are a few brands that I like. I am not a big fan of branded stuff. But there are a few standardised SST brands (Sasta – Sundar – Tikau) or cheap, elegant and durable I swear by. Decathlon is one such example. I have always worn the standard fare available at these stores. I remember when the first store opened in Thane, Ghodbunder Road. I had taken an ST bus to reach the store from Borivali. The experience was fantastic. The store manager even offered me a part time gig to come and help around the store. They needed folks who were into outdoors. He even gave me a discount.
Before Decathlon, we would get our outdoors supplies from Nandu Chavan of MSA Gorai – a tiny but resourceful shop famous among the Sahyadri trekking junta. Nandu of course is a renowned personality and is known for his genial and honest nature. Of course, Decathlon became a routine stop once I moved to Bangalore and even after. So when I bought a few more books over my stay and my baggage was full – the Rs. 199 backpack from Decathlon came to the rescue as my kangaroo pack, which I am wearing on my belly now. It is ingenious because it also conceals the signs of my sloth very well.
I have never bought a pair of Nike shoes in my life because the brands from Decathlon serve me well. Forclaz, Quechua and Kalenji – are some of my trusted brands found only at Decathlon. This also makes me wonder why we don’t have such desi brands, which are proudly manufactured in India. I know that in Dharavi there are some very good manufacturers of backpacks and outdoor gear but they have not been able to scale up to the level of other luggage brands such as Safari or Mokobora.
Each time you visit Decathlon, there is a steady stream of shoppers – they even have a super self checkout corner and with almost all outdoor and indoor sports gear available under one roof – just roaming around the aisles can be enough to create the thirst for getting out of the four walls and go exploring.
It is amazing how certain brands evoke such calls to action. I remember in 2022, a bunch of us from work decided to workout everyday and to cement our resovle we went on a shopping trip to Decathlon.
In the end we did go for a few months until I got covid and then everything else went awry. But at least the visit gave our resovle the impetus it needed. The same is with books. If you visit bookstores such as Blossoms or Kitab Khana – you want to find a quiet corner and read all the books that you buy at these places. But in reality buying the book is only the step 0 of getting down to actually reading it.
Just like working out, I have struggled to read. I try to catch up on longform articles now and then but sustaining the habit is difficult. Not using social media does free up time but again how the time goes away in other tasks is a wonder of the modern busy world.
These are excuses and one must really make the effort of getting down to do things which matter. Create cues and reward behaviours. But then they say self discipline is a cognitively demanding activity. You may have a limited amount of self control and where you spend it determines the quality of your life. This form of ‘ego depletion’ furthers bad habits.
I am not sure if that holds true. Many researchers disagree with that idea that Roy Baumeister presented in his book – Willpower. I am with them. There are some resolute folks who manage to accomplish great feats against all odds on sheer willpower and that anecdotal evidence is good enough to develop new healthy habits even when the circumstances may just nudge you into pulling the covers and going to bed.
