The hands you take and the hands you leave version 2 part 91in page86 - Page 79

Originally posted by: deejagi

Guys I am not against web series but I love the books as printed version than kindle version. Just imagine how many people in print industry and support industry loose jobs if people stop buying books to save the rack space in their house. Yes it is worth while you are away from your library but not when you are in your place. This is also becomes like TRP. If there are limited readers, how do you expect writers to publish books. Every publisher expect the investment back with marginal profit. No one runs charity or social services.

 Again everyone are not fortunate to own tablet, and other gadgets. Many even in this era still depends on TV for their entertainment. So just because someone does watch serial on TV doesn't become less intellectual. 

Originally posted by: deejagi

@ mangothyme: sorry I was talking about people who reside in India and not about those in the US. Here every kid is not fortunate to order books on Amazon. Many still depends on libraries to read books. Not everyone has gadgets but a common TV for the whole family.

Even I do buy things on Amazon but not entirely dependent on that. I still love to shop in a mall with my husband and daughter. That gives me a different kind of joy which online shopping doesn't give. Even today I buy at least 10 to 12 books a year. That gives the pleasure of being with the family when I hold the books and online reading is like video chats. That doesn't mean I hate the video chats but that should be limited and the proximity should increase.

Sorry if you don't agree but this is my ideology.

Originally posted by: Mangothyme

No problem. We shall agree to disagree. 

Here malls are disappearing because they charge a lot of money for clothes. I buy clothes, shoes, bags pretty much everything online. Even designer stuff is available for cheap if you know where to look. I just find cost online to be cheaper. I even order groceries online because it is cheaper. 

I love hunting bargains. The outfit Anami wanted in the serial for instance is Rs 500,000. That is $7000 plus for me. 😲 My jaw literally dropped when I thought someone would pay this much money for one outfit. It's not a question of can people afford it, but I think being frugal is good even if you can afford it. I know a lot of NRIs who get married, but take a trip to India to get dresses made by a tailor specifically because of cost. They copy designers. They make jewels in India. If I am to get married my parents would make a trip to India to get silk saris in bulk to give for gifts, even the wedding sari. Get jewels made. We are South Indian so no lehengas here.  That is what I am used to. If you can get something for cheaper, why pay more ? 

Originally posted by: deejagi

Certain things are to be felt before buying and wedding collection is one such thing. You do get sarees online but surely not as satisfactory as you buy choosing between hundreds and thousands. Even it's not just with books ama serial, it's about sharing family time. People will watch serial during dinner and analyze after that. During that they relate that to someone or some information which increases the bonding.

And books even today we fight among ourselves who will read first and once read, we will discuss the story as if it is our own life and fight, console etc. 

Originally posted by: Mangothyme

The thing is even in India if people know we are NRI they tend to hike up the price or show us only expensive stuff. And designer stuff, forget it. They just want you to pay for what I consider crap materials. A famous designer sells crepe saris not silk for around $700 plus online which is around Rs 50.000. For that money we have bought many pure silk saris. We go directly to the source  I don't think I will let my parents buy  a sari that is so expensive even for my wedding. .But I would like to go a place where a silk sari is actually made and buy from the weavers directly. I don't mind paying them the money because I consider them artists. 

We shared family time differently. I am older now and live away from my parents. But when we were growing up we did not watch TV, it was only American TV, no desi channels then or I am not sure if it was available in the US. We sat at the dining table and talked practicing our Tamil or we listened to Carnatic music while we ate with our hands. 😳. Sound very rigid but my parents wanted very much to pass Indian culture. 

As for the books I read now, my dad would consider them twaddle or nonsense. I have another board for that. But I think family time is very important.

Originally posted by: Athene

I can relate here.

My mom is from India and she only moved to Canada after marriage. She raised us with pure Indian traditions and made it a point, especially when we were younger, to avoid purchasing certain things from here because of the cost.

For example, some of our family friends have children that are 10 years older than me and so they got married when I was a lot younger. At that time (almost 12 to 15 years ago) purchasing even a basic lehenga here would mean travelling a good 60 to 70 kms to Brampton and forking over $500 easily for something like what Parvati and Padma wore to the Yule Ball in HP4. For that same price, you could buy a dulhan's joda from a reputed tailor or even directly from source in India. So we would purchase Indian clothes like that when we were in India and then wear them to functions for the next 3 to 4 years.

Similarly when we were younger and we wanted to get CDs and cassettes for Indian music, we would buy in bulk in India because here you would end up paying a good $30 for an original and $2 for a pirated version that worked only once or twice. Those $2 could get you 2 original versions in India.

Deejagi I can also relate to your point. I buy a lot of stuff online mainly because I hate shopping, but some things become almost like a family outing for us. When I wanted to buy my graduation gown, we spent 4 hours roaming store after store and trying out a multitude of dresses before I settled on one. It wasn't that I couldn't purchase it online. In fact the one I bought was the one I had selected online as well. But it was an outing and a time together taking everyone's opinions into account. Or when we purchase air tickets, we still go to a travel agent because we've known the agent for a long time and he always gives us good prices even though we could probably find cheaper online. But to sometimes that relationship matters more than saving that $100 that you can save by not purchasing unnecessary stuff online for a few days.

We don't spend enough time together anymore even though we all live under the same roof still so we make use of these small moments to spend some time together. I do feel it depends family to family. For example, we don't watch TV together because I like thrillers, situational comedies, and thoughtful shows like this, but my parents likes situational comedies and historical shows more and my sister enjoys political thrillers. So it makes no sense for us to sit down together and watch shows that one of us won't enjoy. But we will go shopping together for things like graduation gowns or go out to lunch together to celebrate small wins or travel together though we won't get to do the things we want to do, etc.