I happen to read an article in readres digest, how in certain states people can grow other than grass in their front yard and no need to mow your lawn which can be replaced by some wild flowers or anything you wish. This set me to think which I have been observing from my few visits to this country.
Americans are so used to standardization that any house any where has proper places for everything.
their washer drier for example. all properly set water out let etc and just fit in and hey and presto everything is ready which ever corner of states it is. compare this with back home where we have different type of washing machines where it is a pain to fit in different type of houses, (i call it custom built or random built or what ever,) everytime you move you check for the proper place to keep the washing machine and where to fit the outlet and if you go for another model then it is a bigger pain everything has to be changed from the start.
same with the cots and beds. it is all so nicely standardized that it fits like a T when ever you buy a new addition or a separate cot or bed or bed linen. compare this with home furniture. you have thousand and one or more dimensions to cots and it is a big pain to match the cot and the bed and many houses manage to stuff some stuffing so that the bed looks proper!! on the unmatched cot size.
this standardization i was able to observe in malaysia also. The most amazing thing i felt though it might appear trivial and silly the mops and the bathroom plastic brooms fitting like should i use again the phrase T. which ever breaks the handle or the broom just go and pick up the other part and it will just fit in . you can just pick it up from any place from local store to the big supermarkets. I think we Indians take the beauty in diversity to extremes and two mops will not compliment with each other even if you buy from the same store and some time same model.
so far so good.
what I am coming to is the standardization being dragged again to the other side of the pendulum.
So when you go to the chain of stores like say Walmart which we are shortly expecting to open shop in India, has all the goods stacked in the same order in almost all the place. Like people here drive cars by rote, I think they will also shop like this, go in, turn left , fruit section, straight ahead sugar , grocery, further down milk , and so on.
Even if it is little changed people get impatient and want their routine to be not altered at all. So all houses also have same color, sort of similar interiors with few variations and every thing has to be same and very userfriendly.
I find it kind of wierd and after some time you do get bored and want to see things differently. If you have seen one you have seen them all kind of feeling crops up. shopping especially in such places becomes a real pain though a necessity . you dont enjoy shopping you just do it as you have to do it.
I remember how i felt seeing chandigarh for the first time . i felt it was so drab and looked an extended military colony.
let us learn some useful standardization and stick to that.
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3 comments:
Nice one.
As for standardisation, that's what India needs. A lot of rubbish stores and badly planned Supermarkets is not the way to go.
And walmart's the reason there are more stores closer to your community (boring as they may be), but for the common man accessibility is more important that "interesting & fun" shopping.
More comments later
hey leela.keep it up. The chandigarh bit is something i told yasas about only a few days back.what a coincidence
Good one ... here's my bit.
You use the term Standardisation. I would think of the whole thing as Capatilisation or Commercialisation. White America always loved and will continue to create more of itself. Buy one get two free ... even if u don't freakin need it.
You are right in saying that one needs the right balance ... but this is very subjective.
In talking abt 'fit in' systems ...the simplification of a process or technique is better highlighted in a highly commercial and capitilistic market, because it is driven by the consumers who demand better products that are more functional and cheaper. This is very true in America.
However, in Europe they seem to have a decent balance between the local shops (such as markets selling groceries) and the big ones such Carrefour and Giant spread out. I am not sure how long the small ones would last. This would almost entirely depend on the local communities determination in keeping it out. The solution might lie in creating an awareness.
later
Andy
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