Frankly, I have no idea why I like Jaya Supermarket that much. Perhaps it's because of the huge toystore that was there when I was a kid? Or was it because it's the times spent with my cousins when we were merely children and our late grandfather would take us there just to get us out of Gran's hair for a couple of hours? It's probably just sentimentality.
I think I also remember going to the very first incarnation which was probably built in the seventies or something which gave way to the blue incarnation. Or I could be making that memory up, I am not sure - I don't want to pull a James Frey. Some bits are fuzzy but they're real.
But I do remember (when we were younger) my late maternal grandfather would bring me, my bro and our cousins there during the holidays to jalan and he would indulge us the way that grandparents do: buying us stuff at the toy store and paying for our kiddie rides. It had a merry go round and everything. No need to go all the way to First World.
I also recall having some bad supermarket yogurt once and I puked it back out within the hour of consumption out in one of the back alleys. Since then my gag reflex is still pretty sensitive and that incident put me off yogurt for years before I would try it again.
Then there was also a MPH bookstore which shared space with Guardian Pharmacy. I remember that Guardian having cosmetic counters that one now only see in department stores now. There also used to be a street level MPH outside Jaya (where the convenience store is now, next to Sinma).
I never understood the logic of having two MPH stores within 100 metres of each other. Not that it was doing well at the end. But if it wasn't for that MPH store, I would never have started reading Harry Potter. That story some of you may remember me telling you personally or don't give a damn enough to remember, which I understand. I'll save that for later.
In the last few years Popular and Pay Less Books set up shop on the second floor across and facing each other at the end of path. For me Pay Less Books is always a good enough excuse to go to Jaya. Now that THAT's gone I'm not there as often.
(Back then the toy store used to be where Guardian or Popular is now and it was HUGE - it sold a variety of toys that Toys 'R Us can lawan and it had an arcade with arcade games and kiddy rides - which I thought was pretty cool for a neighbourhood mall at the time).
Even as I go back there now, there are still a couple of shops that's been around for decades that are STILL there. It's amazing. Like the watch shop on the ground floor where Dad got me my first Baby-G (which still ticking in a drawer, but it turned from blue to green with exposure to various elements) watch when I was thirteen for doing well in school. And the hardware shop that's on the first floor that has been there long before Handymart came along.
Before it totally closed, it's just one of those "huge mall" substitutes - I want to go someplace but I don't want the hassle of a huge mall.
[Took a shit load of photos last year for this post, but frankly I don't know where they've gone. Oh well]
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