I’ve been born and brought up in Bombay, and I’ve celebrated a lot of birthdays... but the funny thing is that I only remember the gala celebrations from the last few years of my school! When i was 5 – 6, it was so simple, we just brought a cake from the local bakery shop, bought some back presents for all the kids, ate some good home-made snacks along with some local potato wafers in thin paper plates, played musical chairs, and then went home in time for dinner! How different from the scene today!
It’s not just the spending that has gone up, the influence of brands, and products, on our day-to-day lives and on our occasional spending has changed drastically too. Today, even if we think of buying a cake from a local bakery, that bakery invariably turns out to be a Monginis, a Croissants or Ribbons & Balloons, the potato wafers are either Lays, or Uncle Chips, or whichever the latest entrant in the market is, the back presents have assumed enormous proportions and somewhere somehow the sanctity of the celebration is lost...
Growing up to go to college in South Bombay was a relief, and so was staying at Bandra, wondering why? No it wasn’t that I prefer townies, or that I like the hip crowd in Bandra, it was simply the fact that I enjoyed the promenade at Marine Drive, like I enjoyed the ones at Carter Road and Bandstand. At least there were some areas in the city where you could relax with your friends and not have to pay to be seated there.
The explosion of malls, multiplex cinemas, cafes, restaurants, pubs, hookah parlours has opened up an avenue of places for the youth to explore, but it has brought with it the culture of spending. We hear about our parents telling us that we must save and not spend all the money that we either get or earn, but invariably towards the end of the month we’ve done just that. Whether it is buying those irresistible pair of shoes, or spending a huge amount of money on tickets for a movie on a weekend night show, or just going to a fine dining restaurant because you were bored, we have grown used to spending a lot of money comfortably, without guilt.
Sometimes I think, is having less money a crime? Bombay used to make me feel like that. Thankfully I had a home of my own to come back to (even though I came back in the wee hours of the morning some nights!) but imagine attempting to pay rent for a house in the city! Insane!
I studied Advertising and Marketing after graduation to understand what “Branding” and “Marketing” meant... It’s amazing how companies get people to buy their products and services on a simple term like ‘aspiration’. We ‘aspire’ to be in the high society, we want to buy the brands that they buy because that’s become our acceptable standard.
Growing up to go to college in South Bombay was a relief, and so was staying at Bandra, wondering why? No it wasn’t that I prefer townies, or that I like the hip crowd in Bandra, it was simply the fact that I enjoyed the promenade at Marine Drive, like I enjoyed the ones at Carter Road and Bandstand. At least there were some areas in the city where you could relax with your friends and not have to pay to be seated there.
The explosion of malls, multiplex cinemas, cafes, restaurants, pubs, hookah parlours has opened up an avenue of places for the youth to explore, but it has brought with it the culture of spending. We hear about our parents telling us that we must save and not spend all the money that we either get or earn, but invariably towards the end of the month we’ve done just that. Whether it is buying those irresistible pair of shoes, or spending a huge amount of money on tickets for a movie on a weekend night show, or just going to a fine dining restaurant because you were bored, we have grown used to spending a lot of money comfortably, without guilt.
Sometimes I think, is having less money a crime? Bombay used to make me feel like that. Thankfully I had a home of my own to come back to (even though I came back in the wee hours of the morning some nights!) but imagine attempting to pay rent for a house in the city! Insane!
I studied Advertising and Marketing after graduation to understand what “Branding” and “Marketing” meant... It’s amazing how companies get people to buy their products and services on a simple term like ‘aspiration’. We ‘aspire’ to be in the high society, we want to buy the brands that they buy because that’s become our acceptable standard.
There’s a reason why people who have a middle-class income are usually just stuck in the same segment for years together. We earn a moderate salary but spend like we earn three times that, and hence end up paying a major portion of our earnings towards either loan interest or credit card payments!
All these examples of how our lives have changed are the effects of consumerism in a society. Not all is bad of course. We do have the benefits of getting amazing products and services thanks to the immense competition in almost every segment, whether it is hospitality, airlines, telecom services, and so on. We have so many more options in everything, and they’re growing by the day. Our exposure to everything has changed because of this, thus making us a part of the global community in a much bigger way than ever before!
The key to living with consumerism, like all other advices, is the same: to exercising control over our choices Nothing, and no one can ‘force’ anything upon you. Everything that you do is a choice you’re consciously making. The important thing is to understand that. I remember this one time when I was shopping for shoes, and saw these really beautiful pair of shoes in a shop at Bandra, and I was trying to bargain with the salesman, I told him, “Meri jaan atki hai is mein, please price kam kar di jiye”, he smiled at me very gently and said, “Madam, aap in chhoti cheezon mein apni jaan mat atkaiye, yeh toh aate jaate rehte hain...” and it struck me as to how easily I had fallen into the trap of “I want this NOW” That day I began to learn how to disassociate, and have managed to stay true to my ‘ideas’, though I must confess I’m absolutely in love with this Tommy Hilfiger watch that I saw at a Titan showroom but it was for Rs. 6,000/- and so I’ve told myself that I can’t afford it unless I get an awesome bonus or something at work! ;)
Keep your spirits high! And Enjoy!
All these examples of how our lives have changed are the effects of consumerism in a society. Not all is bad of course. We do have the benefits of getting amazing products and services thanks to the immense competition in almost every segment, whether it is hospitality, airlines, telecom services, and so on. We have so many more options in everything, and they’re growing by the day. Our exposure to everything has changed because of this, thus making us a part of the global community in a much bigger way than ever before!
The key to living with consumerism, like all other advices, is the same: to exercising control over our choices Nothing, and no one can ‘force’ anything upon you. Everything that you do is a choice you’re consciously making. The important thing is to understand that. I remember this one time when I was shopping for shoes, and saw these really beautiful pair of shoes in a shop at Bandra, and I was trying to bargain with the salesman, I told him, “Meri jaan atki hai is mein, please price kam kar di jiye”, he smiled at me very gently and said, “Madam, aap in chhoti cheezon mein apni jaan mat atkaiye, yeh toh aate jaate rehte hain...” and it struck me as to how easily I had fallen into the trap of “I want this NOW” That day I began to learn how to disassociate, and have managed to stay true to my ‘ideas’, though I must confess I’m absolutely in love with this Tommy Hilfiger watch that I saw at a Titan showroom but it was for Rs. 6,000/- and so I’ve told myself that I can’t afford it unless I get an awesome bonus or something at work! ;)
Keep your spirits high! And Enjoy!
Comments
keep writing. This new post came exactly a month afetr the previous one. Tsk.tsk.