The urge to buy

Stuff ... I had briefly mentioned this craving earlier on my facebook status. Call it the analytical mind or the lazy mind, but I did ponder about this urge/craving to buy quite a bit. Here's my analysis:

Why do I buy stuff ? Primary reasons are want and need. For instance, I lost my nail clipper and I had to get a new one - so I bought one. This is clearly a need. Then there's the want, the desire to buy things. I might see something visually appealing and even though I don't need that item I might still want it. Secondary reasons are boredom and laziness. These two are so intertwined, it's hard to separate the two. I'm bored at times because of laziness and I shop because of laziness. Why ? because shopping/buying is the easiest way to obtain 'ownership'. All you have to do is swipe a card and you own something. Call it my psyche, but there's a momentary gratification in owning a new item. That gratification dies slowly as the item becomes familiar or to put it more crudely, as the item loses it's value. On the other hand, try translating that ownership to something that doesn't lose value over time - a skill such as dancing, playing baseball or any skill for that matter. It's incredibly hard. There's a steep learning curve. Owning a skill is very very hard. The human mind knows this, it's so weird. Given a choice - it always points you to the easier path, or the path of least resistance aka shopping. I can't think of anything that's as easy as buying something. Watching TV might come close but watching TV doesn't give you any ownership. Ok, let me correct myself - watching TV doesn't give you any tangible ownership where as shopping does.

In my opinion, buying something because of a need is fine, because of a want is also fine, but buying something because of laziness or boredom is not. I would rather spend that time in acquiring a skill than squandering my money over some items which, after a while will prove worthless. I've done this repeatedly over and over again - the iPod, the PSP, all those clothes that I gave to goodwill, oh the list is endless. It's high time to stop this meaningless shopping extravagance.

The new Indian railways

So I had to board a train from Sawai Madhopur to Jaipur, when I was in Ranthambore last month. That's when I realized how vastly improved was the new Indian railways. At the Sawai Madhopur station, they had a chart displayed with the reservation list on the platform. There were LCD boards displaying the wagon/bogie numbers. Every 5 minutes an announcement was made about the train's latest position and the expected arrival time. Here's the best deal - the train stopped so accurately, the wagons/bogies aligned with the LCD board numbers exactly.

5 or 6 years back, all of this was unheard of. Getting into a train, was quite an exercise in itself, especially if you were boarding at intermediate stations. You'd wait for the train without knowing when it'd show up (as the trains would rarely run on time). You'd bug whoever was wearing a white uniform for the train arrival time and when you heard the sound of the blow horn of the approaching train, you'd grip your bags and get ready to sprint as you'd have no clue where the train would stop. You'd have memorized your wagon and seat number, look for that wagon as the train passed by and run with the train until it stopped and finally get into the car.

It was impressive to see these improvements. Of course, Sawai Madhopur is on the Mumbai-Delhi route, the busiest train route in India. Western railway has always been the flagship department of the Indian railways. So quite naturally, any improvement in the railways will take it's birth in the western sector. Next time I'll have to ride a train in some remote south Indian corner to see if the improvements are uniform throughout.