Moorings of a Time 'Left' Behind...

Went shopping to town last Saturday, for khadi wear - kurtas to be precise. In Mumbai if it's khadi, it's got to be good ole' Khadi Bhandaar, (KB), D.N. Rd, Fort. Thankfully, the place hasn't change one wee bit since I visited it last year.

For all the hustle and bustle synonomous of life in this mega metro and the seductive sheen of its avant-garde trappings, KB continues stubbornly unaffected and untouched by the transient whims of time. Here at KB, you are now besieged by a time-warp.

The thick air inside the shop is still heavily laden with the scent an all-engulfing languorous charm, courtsey the socialist mettle of a (once) pre-liberalized economy. The dusty window panes, musty wooden paraphernalia and an asynchronous drone of an array of huge four-blade - weather beaten - ceiling fans suspended from an ashen coloured ceiling, made me acutely aware of the anomaly in time I was witness to. The dull passing of every formidable minute in time spent here was not wasted on me, for sure.

Not for this place, are clichés like: 'Customer is King', 'customised service' or 'customer delight.' All these hold good outside; once inside these are passé - and I for once am not complaining! And mighty good reason for that there is too.

In a world where 'Clothes maketh a man', beauty truely lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is of little wonder then that even simplicity today comes at a price and with a designer label. Chic and ethnic no longer stand for rustic mix-n-match of contrasting apparel - that you once put together at your sole discretion. Today, alas, they stand for the approval of fashionistas of the likes of the Satya Paul's and Rina Dhaka's of this country - and I say this with due respect to their talents and those of their kinsmen.

It's a democratic world after all, governed largely by a capitalistic society! And so everyone's got to make money while the sun shines. However, to keep the sun shining bright Marketeers have to do all they possibly can to extend this period of daytime for as long as possible. Enter concepts like "Branding," "Positioning," "Customer Satisfaction" and the like.


But then, to quote economist Milton Friedman, there's no such thing as a free lunch in a capitalistic society; everyone's got to ultimately foot his portion of the bill. However invariably the buck stops at the customer - and I'm fine with it if he can afford it for the 'tailor-made' luxuries he is bestowed with in name of enhancing his (otherwise incomplete) shopping experience. Every consumer is treated the same way, and the phrase ‘mass customisation’ is then abused till kingdom come.

Not for me, however, the razzmatazz of all this marketing gimmickery - at least when it comes my purchase of the humble homespun khadi kurta.

As I side-track here a little, I cannot but help but mirror FE columnist Suhel Seth's sentiments (http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=91274) as he lashes out at the inept and fuddy-duddy logic at work in operationalising the 'permission marketing' concept which modern day marketeers have so blatantly violated, much to the chagrin of a growing base of harried customers.

To be honest, I've had it with overtly patronizing salespersons and the 'all-your-needs-addressed' brands they promote making you believe they know you inside-out - sometimes better than you know yourself - and non-challantly breathe down your neck with the all-knowing alacrity of your bum-chum langoti buddy! And it would help recollect whilst at it that, they're not doing you a favour, doing it as they are in your time and on your account.

Customised service aside, I'd rather partake of handsome bargains for moderate prices at a no-frills, humble KB outlet that doesn't pretend to know all by offering you the all and sundry equivalent of a Kotler text on Services Marketing. And in the process, as a welcome a change, revisit - if only for a few minutes - the 'take-it-or-leave-it' socialist charm that stubbornly refuses to peel off at these places, even in these competitive times. Coming from someone who has grown up in thriving capitalist times, some irony that now, ain't it!

If fluidity is the plasma of time, then ideology is the plasma of my life!