Category: 2021

Buying Apples

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

I have just returned from buying the iPhone 13. If you don’t know this about me, you should know that I am an Apple loyalist. Have been since I switched from a BlackBerry to the iPhone 4. I have upgraded my phone every year. Over the years, I have purchased most of the Apple line of products. I love Apple. I save up for the things I want to buy and I end up buying their products because of their sheer ease of use and beauty. They appeal to me. I also know it’s a very subjective choice that can lead to the most vociferous debates.

That being said, I live in India. These products are luxury products. We pay for them excessively. There are jokes that happen that question how many internal organs we must sell in order to purchase one of these phones. Of course there are those whose wallets never make a dent with these products. There are others like me who end up saving for it for the better part of a year. On top of Apple’s own price, there is an 18% Goods and Services Tax AND 30% Import Duty! So yes, the price is steep. And those who want an Apple product are punished for wanting them

Yet, in 2021, we do have reports that Apple has fared with an exceptional market performance. Apple recorded double-digit revenue growth in India and Apple CEO Tim Cook pointed out that emerging markets like India, Latin America and Vietnam had shown an “exceptionally strong growth.” But despite this, there is not a single official Apple store in India!

My personal experience has dealt with unofficial retailers and official retailers, in my city of Mumbai. After two consecutive years of a lack of stock of the ‘new colours’ of the iPhones reaching the unofficial retailers, I decided to take my business to the ‘official’ retailers in the city.

Today, like the other years I have had buying experience from these official franchise venues, I had a bad experience. Let me talk of the problems that we face.

The Apple event happens. The phone is launched in a brand new colour with dazzling features – those audio visual presentations are such head turners! So the loyalists run to the nearest retailer to prebook their phones. Once the prebooking is done, one is stuck with the retailer. Then comes the launch date. People gather outside the venues. The people who have booked a nearly $2,000 phone have to wait in a chaotic fashion outside stores.

The staff of the stores are not equipped to deal with a clientele that comes from their own avenues of prestige. It is almost a class war that happens – and one can tell that the staff exert what power they have over a populi that can shelve out thousands of dollars. Moreover, in more case than one, the staff do not understand basic codes of civility. The system of queues doesn’t feature very well here – not even among the rich. Everyone wants to be entitled and civility takes a flying leap, right back to Cooke’s dinner parties.

Another thing that happens, there always is a hustle and bustle and hue and cry for the stock of the phones. Most times, the new phone with the new colour seems to never reach the retailers. Here my partner vouches his opinion: “They do this as a free marketing gimmick. They want people to raise a hullabaloo. So the mismanagement is done on purpose. How else would sales generate publicity? Apple needs to release its stock a day before the launch. Once there, the staff can make an account of who gets what. The whole process could be neater and better managed!” He well may have a point there.

So we end up with our prebooking voucher in our hands, hoping that someone will direct us to someone in the store who knows what the fuck is going on. Knowing the staff of the store also doesn’t seem to help very much. There are ingrown politics of their own going on. Heaven forbid, the person you know is on leave, or at another outlet doing his job. You will be promptly forgotten. The pull you had to get the new coloured phone will become a figment of your imagination.

I wonder if all of these dynamics will change if Apple does decide to start up their own stores in India. It will still be run by people who are inefficient and rude. It is a small scale revolution of its own going on – where the “bourgeoisie” can never be brought down because ironically they also create jobs for the “proletariats”.

The Night Boy

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

I saw an episode of the second season of Modern Love last night. It reminded me completely of myself. I have been a lover of the night, since as far back as I can remember. I love the night. Everything about it is beautiful. I have stayed awake at night since school. I would study late and then I would go to school. Nothing really changed in college. I couldn’t get up for the early morning lectures when it came to degree college. I hated waking up in the mornings.

Staying up in the day drains me. It literally takes away my peace of mind. As it is I do not do too well with peace. I am melancholic and the nature of day drains me further. There are too many people to deal with. Too many interruptions in what I wish to do by myself. There is traffic. There are irritations. There are frustrations.

The night is quieter. I wouldn’t say it is quiet, living in a city like Mumbai that never sleeps any which way. It has an ambience about it which I can never find during the day. Even the elves in J R R Tolkien’s universe awoke at night. They looked upon the stars – they were the first things the elves saw. I won’t dramatize this by saying that stars are what I love. No, it’s the moon that gets me every time. I love the moon. My favourite song happens to be Moon River. Everything to do with the moon mesmerizes me.

There is a quote I often find myself narrating, “I am not the sun, I am the moon. I soothe, I do not burn.”

This stays with me. When I chance upon the Moon in Tarot, I am mesmerized by the imagery. It is meant to be associated with the darker nature of the self, the psyche, intuition, sleep, a deep delving into the soul, if a soul there is. I think about the moon and then I think about the night. When I wake in the day, it is evening. I greet the dying sun and I am content. As he settles for the night, I find myself blossoming. Sunsets are more beautiful than sunrises. We just like to romanticize new beginnings, the end of the day can be grander and way more poetic.

For some people, like most of my loved ones, they bloom under sunlight. Mom is a bit like me, but she has to cave in to the others because she has a home to run. Doorbells and maids, food and shopping, and her daughter who doesn’t like the night. Then sometimes, I am accused of not being a part of the world, but I am. The world doesn’t die at night. There is a whole new world that opens its arms to me.

There are owls that fly by silently. Moths flutter in towards lights. The rain feels fresher, darker. Dogs move about quietly and sometimes when they fight their voices ring out. It feels like I am not quite living in a city around three and four in the morning. Memories are easier to grasp. People are easier to read. The moon is bright when it is full and you can talk to it without anyone else eaves dropping.

I can read. I can write. I can cry. Poetry comes easy. Words make prose without necessity. Meeting up people who are also night birds brings in a flock that jabber and chatter and sometimes breaks the quiet. It gives me the time to engage, not just with like minded people, but with one’s own self.

Most times, I see the sun rise. The sky becomes a dark blue. Then it lightens. Birds fly and the owls rest. Ribbons of grey filter the sky and somewhere in the east, the sun rises. Sometimes, the sunrises are beautiful to watch. Especially in the overcast filters of the monsoons. And after I say hello, it’s time to sleep.

Of MCTs and Pneumonia

Published on by Harpreet ChhachhiaLeave a comment

The days seem to pass by and I am seeing them melt away. It was just yesterday that I lost Zoe. There was a blur of sadness and we got Zach from Pune. It was Diwali and he slept through the crackers and the smog. He was distant like some saint of old. Wouldn’t be affectionate with family members. But he is loved. And he loves back. In his own way. He grew up so handsome. People love the way he looks. He loves people too. I’d definitely say he takes to strangers with a tail that wags nineteen to the dozen.

Nearly eight years have passed. I fell ill with COVID in April. 4/5 of us contracted it. He was taken to a different home with Xena. Being apart from them was worse than the illness. And the sickness was truly bad. I developed viral pneumonia and nearly died around 17th. I lost my aunt. Zach loved her so. She was my last link to a childhood only she and I shared. I lost her to COVID and the chaos that became the health care system of India.

In this interim, Zach developed a boil on his stomach. It went unnoticed because of all the health problems and loss surrounding the family. Xena developed a boil in her gums. I noticed it when they returned to our home by the end of April. I thought it was a boil. I couldn’t give them a bath because of my weakness and so they were taken to a spa. I missed the boil on Zach. Brain fog and fatigue didn’t help matters. Not to mention the series of steroids, blood thinners, anticoagulants and antibiotics that were being pumped into my system.

When he developed allergies in his snout, I began treating it and it was then we began to notice that his front teeth which were already minuscule were disappearing. I checked him up and found large swellings on his gums. And the boil on his stomach. Called the vet who visits our home. The lockdown was on and so we could not take him to the vet we visit.

Got his blood work done and got some meds. But it didn’t quite help. After I began to get slightly better because the steroids were lessened and the anticoagulants were being weaned, I decided to just take him to the vet.

An FNAC was done. At home I googled his gum problem and came to the diagnosis that it is gingival hyperplasia. It’s a terrible thing. And before I could breathe after this – I had to go through CTs myself for my sinuses and chest. The score of my chest was 12/25. It didn’t show any improvement from the last CT.

Coming back from this prognosis, I received news that Zach’s tumour is a mast cell tumour. So it has to be surgically removed. I booked an appointment with the vet and he said that Zach would also need an ultrasound and X-ray to see if any cancer has spread anywhere else. The mind reels. I am not even out of pneumonia and my son gets affected by cancer.

I had to pause here because how would I be able to write what’s going on in my mind and heart exactly. There’s so much rage and so much fear. I don’t really know how to express it all. Sometimes I feel all alone. And death keeps looming around my loved ones. I don’t really care if it comes to take me. I just don’t want to die slow and I don’t want to die alone. I am super worried about Zach. I hope he goes through the surgery well and has a quick recovery. I am worried about any allergic reaction to the GA and I hope his tummy doesn’t get bad. I feel alone. And I don’t want Zach to feel scared. When he gets ill, he comes to me often. He knows that i’m the one who gives the right health care. That I’ll take care of him. I don’t know how he knows this. But he does. And I am happy I am alive for this.