Shopping for fantasies

Small and steady miracles are happening right under our noses, yet, some of us just don’t seem to notice. Well, it’s time to wake up, turn on the `Box’ and sit back to experience this journey into `Beautiful Ad Land’. Peopled by sparkling, bright and lively lads and lasses of all ages, they share in enjoying an equally bright and sparkling array of almost `too good to be true’ goodies! In this great new India, that is not Bharat, yet, our natives spout a brand new language (pun intended) called Indish or Hinglish — you can take your pick. They wear colourful clothes of all cuts and styles — like in homes that are mansions or apartments in the lavish genre — are cute or smart, always clever, only sometimes comic, and keenly romantic. In sum, they represent and present the world as it ought to be or will become. Lest we forget, we are skilfully reminded that this brand new world comes to us from the makers of Big Brands A, B, C … right up to Z.

Truly, we have much to thank the makers of this, that and the other. Colgate, followed, no, now overtaken by Close Up & family have led to a sharp improvement in dental care. Our sparkling white teeth are more firmly rooted in strong healthy gums, all because of the Big Red and the stripy guys from HLL. Not to be forgotten is the sterling and heroic job that hardworking Lifebuoy has rendered millions in city, town and village, struggling daily to `Wash away the germs in dirt!’ and the `Taste of India’ has added the goodness of Amul milk, in so many forms, to our daily diet — doctors can look forward to a growing crop of indulging consumers. For this bounty to come they must also thank old hand Cadbury and feisty new comer Nestle for the ever expanding varieties of chocolates to tempt not just the young or the old but also the teenager and aspiring adult.

Meanwhile, keeping in shape is getting to be profitable (no, I don’t mean profiteering) business for the pioneering adventurers of franchised `figure shops’ across the country. To be expected, I suppose, if one is to look just right in craftily cut and branded RMGs (readymade garment, in case you missed this one) on dazzling display and special seasonal sale in the grand `bazaar’ store in a city near you.

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Dressing up homes with attractive floors, colourful walls, glistening and shining bathrooms with loose that flush clean (I so wish our Railways, hotels, and even a well-known MNC Bank would take this example to heart), stocking up on sleek appliances to transform what was once a spartan abode with an array of gleaming stainless steel pots, pans, karahis and tawas, into today’s cook shop! The fashion is for kitchens to come in many colours with cabinets modelled if not made in Italy, Spain, Norway, et al. Earlier generation kitchen appliances such as Sumeet’s famous mixer-grinders that soldiered on non-stop for twenty minutes at a time (remember that `foreign maal’ was engineered for only a minute or two of grinding or blending at one go) — have been pushed off our counters by a range of specialist machines, soon to be available in many colours to match trendy kitchen decor.

Indulged yourself for long enough? Switch off the remote and re-enter the real world where people have to cope with power cuts and dry water taps — with sweaty, rude and jostling crowds — with road hogs and petty and not-so-petty crooks. Depressed again? Console yourself with the belief that sometimes fantasy does become fact. Who knows this may happen here in Bharat that is India?