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Qualitative Research in Asia

This Months' Chosen Consumer

UPENDRA PATNAIK

On what things did you spend more money then, On what things are you spending more money now?

Back Then: Most of the salary went in basic housekeeping. One had to be thrifty. Now: Healthcare taken care of through government pension service & settled children. I like experimenting. I bought Biotique soap for Rs.60/- to try to figure out how a soap can be so expensive. But only once! Denim is my favourite. My (NRI) son got me 'Cool Water' But I still prefer Denim. I associate the smell with me. My son was exasperated.

Now I also like to watch serials on the new Bengali channels - they have more real senior citizens depicted, with genuine issues, unlike the cardboard Hindi serials. Back then, I taught music as a means of making ends meet. Now, at last, I teach it the way I have always wanted to - for free. I love teaching children most of all. Because they are so spontaneous and end up teaching me a lot about life!

Archive

 Santosh works as a chauffeur in Mumbai. His family 'owns' their home and the land on which it is built, in a Mumbai chawl. He stays with his wife, parents as well as school-going younger brother and sister, in a one room plus kitchen accommodation. Both his parents work as part-time gardeners with a construction developer. His maternal uncle along with family is his immediate neighbour.
Santosh is amongst the more better-off and well-settled inhabitants of his area. He owns a Color TV, a semi-automatic washing machine, a small refrigerator, and uses CNG Gas for cooking. Marketers would classify him as belonging to socio-economic class 'C' [23% in the Indian economy].

Santosh has a little bit of land and a home back in his village - and utilizes his savings from the city to further consolidate his rural land holdings. He's postponed starting his own family till his siblings are older. A recent purchase that takes place of pride, in his home : A 'two-in-one sofa-cum-bed that his employer's neighbours were selling off for Rs. 3,000/- Wish list : To save one lakh rupees (Rs. 100,000/- equivalent to USD 2300) to be able to construct a couple of rooms atop his current dwelling. Santosh is one of the faces of a resurgent India.

Shobha

I wake up at 4 am to fill the water. Also wash clothes. My husband is in trade. He deals in supplying cricket bats to children’s stores. He comes home at 11 pm mostly. My sons leave for school, one at 7.30 am and the other at noon. My daughter is 2 years old.

My wish? To have a Sintex tank at home. Like Shobha’s mother has. She is our neighbour. She has two daughters, Shobha and Sangeeta. Both are in secondary school. I have studied till tenth standard, but Shobha’s mother has studied till seventh standard only. Her saas is very fond of my daughter.

I once bought some shampoo packets from a traveling salesgirl. I feel for them, working all day. After all, they are also working the same way like my husband does. But I didn’t use it yet. I can show it to you if you want. There it is, below the TV, can you see? Maybe my husband will use it. I prefer Shikakai soap. It lasts 2 months. All those shampoo ads on TV are nonsense. They wear false hair, you know. My Shikakai soap doesn’t need to advertise. I don’t need to use all those new-fangled items on TV.

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