The Hunt for Trinkets and GeeGaw!!

It was our first trip to India after coming to USA and we were thrilled and so were our family and friends. There was one reason for our family & friends to be thrilled which was seeing us after a long time but there was another reason too… It was all those trinkets and geegaw we would bring from here that had them looking forward for our trip.

With this excitement, we quickly made a list of things to hunt for before we packed for our trip and thankfully Thanksgiving was just in the corner to get some gadgets and stuff we wanted for our family and friends. The list started small which had close relatives and friends and then started growing like an old man’s beard… The questions like “if I am getting something for this cousin won’t that cousin feel bad?” and “If I am getting THIS for this cousin… shouldn’t I get something that costs as much for that cousin too?“ And so it went… the list grew bigger and bigger until finally we had to stop when we knew we wouldn’t have the budget to get everything for everyone.

After the “family and friends” list were made, we made a list of items to buy… Mostly trinkets preferred by family and friends may seem to be affordable but when you really have to hunt for them it is a nightmare. We wanted to start small so we hit the local stores like Walmart and JcPenney…

When we looked at the watches we were shocked to see that the brand names were “Citizen”, “Pulsar”, “Timex”… Oh what hell!!! These were brands that were sold in India and those are not expensive too back there… But if we look at Seiko and Fossil they did not fit into our budget… So we spent a lot of time hunting for brands that were unheard of in India and that also fit in our budget.

We then went to buy some apparels and all we could find was Aeropostale, US Polo Assn and Nautica that were in our budget and size (Men in east are not as huge as men in west??!!!!)… However the real problem started when we actually started examining the make of these apparels for they were mostly MADE IN “INDIA”, “BANGLADESH”, “PAKISTAN” and the most popular “VIETNAM”… We hunted for, may be, 3 hours totally to find something that were actually not made in these countries but it was a waste of time roaming all over the store for we could not find anything made in USA… Keeping in mind that our people would certainly look for what’s on the tag we ended up buying stuff made in Vietnam and Bangladesh and some from Burma so it at least sounded foreign!! Aww… I don’t think so!!

The next stop was at the IKEA store to get some utensils like Non-Stick pans and pots… I am not sure why people back in India think that we get non-stick stuffs cheaper here… The truth is the cheaper the utensils the worthless they are… But anyway we had to pick up some pans and pots for the closest of the family and ended up paying $50 for a big frying pan and a small sauce pan… I am sure it is way much cheaper in India than here… And of course they were MADE IN CHINA :P

When I used to be a kid and my cousins visited from USA they usually brought us Shampoos and Bar Soaps and Body Wash and Moisturizers and we were so thrilled to use them until they were done! When I am now in USA and went to get some stuffs like that I ended up looking at the brands my cousins used to carry and found that when you buy them in bulk it was actually very cheap!!! So I picked up some Suave branded Body Wash, Shampoos and some moisturizers and picked up some Irish Spring Body Soaps… Apart from these all we could see were those brands that we get back in India and it would be stupid to carry them all the way from here… And if you notice, Body Soaps from USA used in India wouldn’t just wash away when you shower!!! :P

For the gadgets, we waited for Thanksgiving and got some laptops, tablets, some electronic toys and digital photo frames which I wouldn’t say were cheaper… They surely emptied our pockets and our bank accounts… But deals are usually a profit gain for the shops and do not give us any big savings… However!!!!!

Our final stop was at Sam’s Club… We used a friend’s member card to get entry and purchased some chocolates. I would definitely not say SOME chocolates. We bought about 4 different packets of them and 2 boxes of Ferraro Rocher and some assorted cookies/ candies… You wouldn’t believe we spent $250 just for this… Ok.. It may not sound big to you but remember we used to get Rs. 50 packet of Éclairs for our birthdays to distribute to the whole classroom? $250 is actually about Rs. 15250 as of Dec 2013… It does mean a lot to us category of people :P

So with all those purchased stuffs dumped into our suitcases and weighed and re-arranged and re-packed... the D-Day finally arrived… It was an exciting moment… Landing in the airport in the middle of the night with all that eagerness and lack of sleep… the first thing that our family said after looking at those trinkets was this… “This is all you could get???!!!” Now.. Shoot me!!! 

The next day when we went shopping around the new big malls opened all we could see were those brands that we could get here with more models and designs than what's here all for the same price!! Now.. Shoot me and then Hang me!!!

So the next time you are planning to visit India... don't tell anyone!!  :D :D :D