As a ‘millennial or a Gen Y kid’, I had the privilege to get
new toys, new clothes once every 6 months at least. With both parents working,
that was something that was possible for them. My Mom has still preserved my
first toy car! Preserve, another word that probably doesn’t resonate with our
generation. Today we consume everything and probably Trash it.
My Dad used to tell me each time I asked him for a new pair
of clothes, that he had only a pair of clothes that he used for almost 10
years. Not that he couldn’t afford more, but he felt that that was probably
enough to survive. Thinking of it, I am just amazed at not just their thought
process of buy only what you need, but also at the quality clothing that lasted
for 10 years. We live in a very different world today though!
As the world opened its doors to Chinese Imported goods in
80’s it meant kids could enjoy variety of new games, new apparels. Decades
later the trend still continues. As the imports grew, sales grew and locally
manufactured goods, which probably were of better quality were off the shelves
to accommodate the Imported Goods. Classic example were the BPL and Crown TV’s
which gave way to Samsungs and LG’s.
My uncle got me my first wrist watch (the real one) Casio
Digital in the 90’s. I continued the hobby of collecting of watches when I
started working in early 2000’s. From Hand Wound HMT Wrist Watches to Solar
watches, technology had evolved; as it has even further in everything we use
today. With a couple of Wrist watches that ran out of batteries, I drove almost
an hour to get the batteries replaced. When I couldn’t find a single repair
shop, I started thinking, whether ‘Repairing’ was even done these days.
As a Teenager, I loved fixing basic technology issues
myself, and used to run to a shop next door to get electrical appliances
repaired. We have transitioned from electrical appliances to electronic goods
today, which probably is complex to fix, or may be the cost of fixing it is so
high that you can get the devise replaced.
With an urge for Change and be trendy we are replacing
everything around us at a much faster rate than we did ever. Industries in
their urge to stay relevant keep upgrading their products and launch a new one
every 2 years, some every 2 months. But an need for change has to be carefully
balanced with a change within. Ask yourself, what do you need? Imagining a
world where we were to only buy and then continuously replace everything around
us instead of repairing them and trashing old ones sends chills down my spine.
World will be nothing but a dumping ground.
As they say whatever we have with us today has come from the
Soil of earth. Food that we eat, water that we drink, plastics, wood, glass,
metals we use, everything! We are fortunate to get best of everything that we
have around us today. But our future generations may not be luckier enough as
we are creating nothing but a mountain of waste which takes hundreds of year to
decompose.
It’s always been a world of contrasts, where on one had some
of us have everything in abundance and on the other hand the deprived struggle
for their basic needs.
That said, if you still wish to replace, it wouldn’t be a
bad idea to repair and reuse (OLX pe bech de!) or even consider donating.
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