Nostalgia for Quality

It is foolish to think that change doesn’t occur; even more foolish to want things to remain the same. However, it is human nature to be nostalgic about things past and even wish for a past gone by. Much like time, change too is an ‘immovable object and an irresistible force’ that cannot be circumvented, prevented or defeated. So we see the inevitability of change in us, in others and all around us. This is said to be the essence of being alive ~ of living.

But there is change and there is change although it is said ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’. This, of course, cannot be said of all things because change happens for either better or worse. While we believe that we now live a more convenient and comfortable life, I believe that in a cornucopia of aspects and issues, the change occurring now at a very fast pace is more for the worse. Let’s skip politics and other weightier issues for our purpose today. The change today I wish to focus on is the quality of almost everything we have come to believe to be absolutely necessary for our existence. And by ‘almost everything’, one is referring to small unnoticeable and unnoticed things we don’t think twice about.

India now produces things we use in our homes and work places. I belong to a generation that didn’t grow up with a lot of things we now consider necessary to live. Heck, we didn’t even know such things existed. Though we had very limited things in our lives, in our homes and work places, we made do and that too with quality products.  Now, we live in a ‘use and throw’ era, which means we are paying good money for even high-end products that aren’t durable. So, we are short-changed both on the price and the quality of the product. But we have been convinced by manufacturers, who have hired top-notch advertising firms to tell us that without this or that product, cosmetic, car, ice-cream, burger, whatever, our lives are inadequate and empty ~ even meaningless. And then these advertising firms rope in celebrities to persuade us to buy these products, which they themselves most likely don’t use.

But a long time ago we have sold our souls to capitalism, which persuaded us that consumerism is the be-all and end-all of life and consumerism is the true religion to attain nirvana. And so we clutter our lives with stuff ~ branded or otherwise ~ which we don’t really need but must possess to underscore the purpose and meaning of our lives. How sad that we have so low self-esteem and self-confidence that we need consumerist props to validate ourselves and our lives. From an austere, simple and minimalist society, the Northeast has become a consumerist society and a huge market for a lot of low quality products. And the manufacturers have become millionaires ~ well on their way to billionaire-ship.

Time was when India may not have produced too many things but they were of high quality. For instance, fridges and fans lasted for at least a couple of generations ~ even more considering very old homes still use them. Unfortunately, the ‘modern’ generations threw a lot of them out convinced by the sales pitch of the ‘latest technology’ and ‘foreign collaborated’. No doubt some of such new stuff proved true to their word but the price is often prohibitive for the average middle class home thus sometimes compelling loans on interest and entry into the debt trap. After all, the Jones must be kept up with.

The quality of soaps and detergents are also no longer what they were. In fact, they have stopped production of a lot of quality stuff. My grouse is that they have stopped producing Vim powder, etc., and replaced with those that simply don’t do the job. But then I realized there are very little public complaints on quality today perhaps because one cannot discern quality if one has never known quality. It’s akin to never missing what one never had. Yes, times have changed and so have things we need and want. Anyway, whatever the advertisements may say, there is still nothing to beat Boroline, Vaseline and old creams and other cosmetics. Unfortunately except for a few companies, so many of them have either ‘revolutionized’ or have stopped manufacturing. I still look for Baby Pink nail polish but looks like these days, the ‘modern’ women prefer ‘modern’ colours and even senior women have become ‘modern’. But please no judgment here ~ simply a statement that some of us old-timers miss the quality products of times gone by.

And this missing is even more deeply felt when every other day we have to call this or that mistry to fix electrical and other appliances. Either we have been persuaded and convinced by our children that there are now appliances with better technology or the very durable and workable fan switches that were there in Grandfather’s house is no longer fashionable or manufactured. While we deal with substandard products and appliances, imagine how much employment we are creating for the mistry and mechanic section of society. Or, are the manufacturers creating this employment at our expense?

Another short-change we live with constantly is after-sales service in the Northeast. Indubitably, in the past few years there is a slight improvement in after-sales service in Dimapur but it may not be so for other parts of Nagaland especially our interior areas. And Northeast, as a whole, consists of a large area of interiors. So, imagine the environmental and financial price we pay for the mountain of unrepaired appliances lying about in our interiors. These are little issues of our ‘developed’ lives that attracts little or no attention but they make such a huge dent in our pockets thus impact on our over-all economic situation and status. Never mind what and how much our ruling dispensations may proclaim from the rooftop, the reality of a still struggling Northeast in the face of an increased competitive consumerist atmosphere and environment cannot be ignored. The other reality is this region is also a solid component of the backbone of India’s manufacturing and sales corporate. Especially when we take into account that the Northeast also continues to be the dumping ground of low quality consumerist and essential goods we have no option but to purchase. For instance, check out the quality of shoes sold in cities and in the hinterland including the Northeast and you will understand what I mean.

Change for the worse also happens but this change must be changed, which will if we care to demand that the Northeast too deserves Corporate India’s best quality products.  

Monalisa Changkija

(The Columnist is a Dimapur-based journalist, poet and former Editor of Nagaland Page. Published on September 21, 2025 issue of the daily news website Northeast Now)