Page 159 - Musings 2022

Phone(y) Nationalism?

Aswathy Chandragiri
2020PHXF0036P

Buying phones these days is not an easy task. The market is flooded with all kinds of options
and confused minds like mine take a long time to decide upon an option. You simply cannot

keep pace with the fast-changing technology and expect yourself to win. Few months back, I

went through that point of my life when the realisation struck me that expensive phones, like
low-priced ones, do not have a shelf life of more than a couple of years. So, I decided to look

for phones that are not high-end but which would meet my requirements.
As usual, I browsed for phones on the internet, compared a few and got some idea of what kind

of phone I want to buy. Then I headed to a mall which housed a retail chain of electronics. The

salesman showed me a number of phones which met my requirements. But when I checked the
authenticity of all the information given by the salesman by reading reviews on the internet, I

realised that there is one particular phone in the market which meets all my requirements and
is cheaper than the options put forth by the salesman.

So, I enquired about that particular phone to the salesman and then, all of a sudden, the ever-
a smiling salesman greeted my question with a muted expression. Slowly his bushy eyebrows

arched and met each other and a minute of silence passed by. Obviously, he was not pleased

but he regained his posture and clarified that the phone was not available there and the only
way to buy it was through online shopping portals. So, I decided to buy it from an online portal

and thanked him while getting out of the shop. As I was about to leave, he stopped me and said,
“But ma’am, there’s a problem. This phone that you are planning to buy is made in China.”

Oh! But I have forgotten the era of buying any item, other than groceries and some clothes,

that did not have the ‘Made in China’ tag. I remembered the frustration I went through when I
could not read the user manual of a toy I bought online for my baby because it was written in

Chinese. Then I thought about a souvenir I picked up from Jordan which again had the ‘Made
in China’ tag! So, with a clear and confident voice,

I enquired, “What about the phone you just showed me? Isn’t that too made by a Chinese

company?” He clarified, “Ma’am, there’s a difference. Though the phone I recommended for
you belongs to a Chinese company, they are manufactured in India. The phone you are planning

to buy is manufactured in China.”
As expected, I felt that he was trapping me into purchasing a phone from his shop by flashing

the idea of buying ‘Make in India’ goods. There I was standing helplessly with diverse

159