Toys Kemp

When Kaia was expanding his vocabulary, just a few weeks after arriving here, he would often say, what I heard as “tus kumpf” whenever we would drive in a particular part of the Nungambakkam area. It took me some time to realize that he was referencing the large toy store, Toys Kemp, where we had visited one day. Just in the last year, I have noticed how Toys Kemp has expanded its inventory and selection. Like many retail outlets in Chennai, they are the beneficiaries of a growing number of wealthy consumers and you can see on their shelves (with many prices that are the same as you would pay in the US) that these folks have children. Since the quality of many of the toys sold in India is substandard, and safety basically non-existent, many of the cheaper things are simply not worth buying because they will fall apart so quickly and/or present a dozen ways for your child to injure themselves. I am acutely aware that my safety standards have dropped significantly since I’ve been living here—and I don’t know if that is a good or a bad thing….

Why I Love this Time: Kokosweto music.