All Goods Foreign

As a child I have been fascinated with all things foreign, toys in particular, clothes, chocolates, shoes, the whole lot. Whenever I heard news of an uncle or aunt arriving from a foreign country, I used to wait unashamedly for them, in anticipation of the things that they would bring for me. Expectedly, I would be overjoyed when someone gifted me a toy or would become inconsolable when they did not. As I grew up, I did not outgrow the fascination for foreign stuff. Part of it was due to the hype created by elderly people telling stories about how good, things were, in the pre 1947 days, when all articles available were British or foreign made. They used to go on and on about the quality of those articles, which ranged from confectionery to cars.

In Chennai, Kasi Chetty street and Burma Bazaar were my favourite haunts to hunt for foreign goods. With an elder cousin of mine, I used to frequent Burma Bazaar for sneakers of well known foreign brands such as Adidas, Reebok, Nike or Puma. I used to go to Kasi Chetty street with my mother to ogle at the toys and chocolates that were on display at the shops there, at times ogling turned into pestering her to buy me some.

Things started to change a little when the economy liberalized during Narasimha Rao’s government with Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister. Brands such as Pepsi, Coke, Arrow, Sony, Opel, Mattel, Nike - practically all the foreign brands started arriving in India. I remember when Coke was launched first in Chennai (months before it was launched in Bangalore), people from Bangalore got impatient and bought crates of it and lugged them to Bangalore! By this time, my love for foreign goods started subsiding as I was feeling disappointed that all the foreign brands were started being made in India. But all was not lost as people from abroad were still bringing in foreign stuff not made in India. Kasi Chetty street and Burma Bazar too were doing business as usual.

Then the worst happened - Chinese goods started storming the whole world. Anything foreign, irrespective of the brand was "Made in China". The quality varied from as good as the erstwhile foreign goods to poorer than domestic made products. As I started seeing and using more and more Chinese products, I began developing a liking for domestic Indian made products. No grievances against Chinese products but just that they were not as glamorous as the "original" foreign products. Subsequently, the word "foreign" lost its attraction when all it meant was Chinese. Though chocolates and a few other exceptions remained, by and large everything turned Chinese and existed as it does now.

Things came a full circle, when a couple of months ago, I chanced upon a shaving foam spray of Gillette, made in Great Britain, imported and sold in India for a very competitive price. No, the quality of the product was not amazing, it was just as any other Indian product’s. I have also come to know that the Tata Indica small car is being sold in the United Kingdom under the City Rover brand. Now, wait a minute - a British product being sold in India in general stores at affordable prices and an Indian product sold in the Great Britain, isn’t that remarkable? I must admit now that my infatuation with all things foreign has well and truly ended. Farewell Kasi Chetty street and Burma Bazaar, no more Nike or Van Heusen for me, Khadi Gramudyog Bhavan, here I come.