Saturday, August 02, 2008

Phoren se kya laayen?

My parents are on their annual trip to Singapore (coz my brother lives there) and every time we speak the question is:"Bete, kya laayen tumhare liye yahaan se?"

And honestly there is nothing that comes to mind immediately... I know electronics are much cooler (and cheaper) there but I am happy with my 6 megapixel camera, 20 month old laptop, iPods in two sizes (nano and Touch). If I get something shinier, newer and latesht, what do I do with this barely-used stuff?

Rehne do!

But finally, after much thought, I have come up with an object of desire: a digital photo frame. You do get them in India but the one I saw in Croma was some 7000 bucks. I'm sure there are more options in Singapore (and better prices :) If have a brand you recommend (or any other advice on what/ how to buy) pls do share!

On a separate note, the whole globalisation phenomenon makes the excitement of 'phoren return' a thing of the distant past. My childhood is chequered with milestones based on my dad's phoren trips...

* The doll whose blue eyes opened and shut (1977 - Israel)

* Pink and white polka dot dress with lace collar (1980 - US)

* VCR! (1984 - Japan)

And well, you get the picture. Every time he returned from some astrophysics conference, opening the suitcase was a sacred ritual. A jadoo ka pitara from which all kinds of wonderful goodies emerged.

No, I don't crave that we go back to that era. But it would be nice to have that suitcase-opening ritual to look forward to. Actually, there are amazing things you get at specific places. You just have to look harder for them.

I recently discovered the pleasures of 'smoked cheese'. Thanks to my daughter who got a chubby slab of it from a cheese factory in Belgium (she went on a Thomas Cook tour to Europe with her cousins this summer).

And dark chocolate - you still don't get really sinful stuff here in India. Or maybe you do, but I love it if someone gets it for me from phoren.

Ab India mein sab kich milta hai... But iska yeh matlab nahin ki aap khaali haath vaapas aayen. We still loooooove gifts. Just avoid the sasta-sundar-tikau perfumes, please!

15 comments:

  1. Hi Rashmi,

    Apne environmental consciousness ko thoda jagaao yaar. Digital photoframes consume unnecessary energy, all to display photo! Unlike laptops, they keep on consuming energy even when no is looking at them.

    In this age of war against Global Warming where the concepts of carbon credit is becoming more and more familiar, aapko digital frame mangwaane ke idea to reconsider karna chahiye.

    Regards
    Amrit

    PS: vo IIM vaali book ka kya hua? :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. "opening the suitcase was a sacred ritual"

    So totally relatable. At my home, we did the ritual in the calm of night where everybody in the family could gather around. And everybody included all the members of the joint family.

    the ritual is still enjoyable. One difference is now sometimes, I am the one on the other side of the suitcase.

    And for people like my grandpa who love perfumes, there are never enough of them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Rashmi,
    This is madhavi. I read your post. its true everybody asking people who came from other country to India. nowdays we get everything to India. But its passion to use foregin gifts & things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hehe.. I went through the same syndrome as to what I should get for the family from Tokyo when I was there recently. Got a couple of paintings and a jewelery box and many tiny things for tiny tots but the dilemma stayed as-s until I caught the flight for home :(

    That dark chocolate image - grrr at you for that :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Rashmi,
    Check out Kodak Easyshare EX1011. It is wi-fi enabled and I bought if for my parents. They do not have to go thru the hassle of loading the pics. We(my brother & I) just have to add them to the Kodak Gallery. The picture quality is good
    Also has a decent MP3 playback quality.
    But amrit has a point!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi, have found your blog pretty interesting and look forward to some more exciting posts.

    ReplyDelete
  7. hi agree with amrit
    I m blogging on various topics
    you can visit my blog

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello.. Amrit! Pls don't be an environmental terrorist :) Agreed this may consume power but so does printing out a photo and the paper it is printed on is not exactly eco friendly. But on the credit side I recently posted abt using public transport more often... de-addicting myself from the comfort of khud ka gaadi etc.

    Yadhvi, thanks for the tip, and Prasoon, that is CHEESE not chocolate. The brown you see is teh flavoured covering that smoked cheese comes in.

    ReplyDelete
  9. :)

    Let me find some free time and I will work out the difference between the eco-friendliness of a digital photo-frame and a printed-photo frame.

    But yeah, I should have congratulated you on shifting to public transport. A little late, but here it goes: Congrats. I truly appreciate this step.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hey there Rashmi...absolutely true isn't it! you get everything in India now! but for people like us staying on the outside shopping for people back home has becomean embarassing pain due to this new phenomena of abundance!What could look novel anymore! So sometimes khaali haath aana hi padtha hai ji!Gifting money to kids is the final straw!

    http://indyana.wordpress.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. But india mein LEMON CURD nahin milta !!

    The charm of a foreign place is to get back a souvenir . Only the nature of souvenir has changed - from model London Red Buses to Lemon curd from Harrod's ! Dono london key yaad dilatay hain !

    ReplyDelete
  12. So finally what you ask them to bring.
    My friend is coming from US and I am planning to order something.
    so what should I ask him to bring?

    Love,
    Tejas Lakhani
    www.tejaslakhani.com/blog

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi Rashmi,

    First of all you have a good blog... With regards to your question

    I have Kodak
    EASYSHARE SV811 Digital Picture Frame
    http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=10528&pq-locale=en_GB&_requestid=4562

    It is good :) i can say

    /Praveen
    http://praveenkaradiguddi.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi,
    Even a digital photo frame consume energy, and to add to it , that too run on two type of power Cell and Electricity. So saying using paper or storing them in a digital frame, might though not statistically but logically will consume energy when compared to the next example! Why not just keep it in a laptop or burn in a CD! As I read you got a new one! This statistically would be less energy consuming. However on this, would hate to deny India as an e-garbage can and you would love to debate this with any one!
    However to add more to it, some digital photo frames, specially the Made in China ones have a Trojan problem. The Trojan horse, which Computer Associates calls Mocmex, recognizes and blocks detection by most security vendor software, as well as the security and firewall mechanisms in Microsoft Windows. Mocmex downloads files and gives them random names, thus requiring a special program to disinfect the PC. (wiki)

    From
    Padfoot
    www.lifepickle.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
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