This post from made me wonder....

How many unnecessary purchases are made in the name of “cool”? Surely a lot of branding works on precisely this premise…and all those tele-shopping channels survive on our desires, not our needs…I remember Wodehouse mentioning a “Mouso-Penso” , which was a combination mousetrap-cum-pencil sharpener (Can some Wodehouse fan tell me which story it appeared in? Some Mulliner story, I think.)

We accumulate more and more possessions which rapidly turn into junk…

And on the subject of razors, Gillette has this superfantastic triple-blade razor for some three hundred odd (very odd) rupees…I have been buying something else at Rs.10 each at my kirana store, and that’s just as good….

I cannot believe that expensive always means better…in my experience, it’s actually just the reverse…the cheaper version, without the baggage of “image” and “cool” and “branding” and “marketing”, does the job better. My 7-rupee thimble coffee at Park View is much better than the tepid Rs.30 cappuncino in some Barista or Cafe Coffee Day etc…