{"id":5418,"date":"2016-07-21T14:49:39","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T09:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5418"},"modified":"2016-07-21T14:49:39","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T09:19:39","slug":"why-are-indians-such-obsessive-hoarders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=5418","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBaad Mein Zaroorat Padegi!\u201d Why Are Indians Such Obsessive Hoarders?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span><\/p>here is much that divides the individual households that make up the fire-breathing beast that is the great Indian middle class. Colgate or Pepsodent. Kissan or Maggi. Gandhi or <\/span>Modi<\/span><\/a>\u2026 just kidding, everyone knows the right answer to that is Canada, for as long as it will keep its doors open to us. Whether chappals are allowed inside the house, must be taken off at the doorstep, or are allowed everywhere except the kitchen. The list of things that divide us is endless. But there\u2019s one belief that unites us, the great Indian middle class, like nothing else can. And it is this: Baad mein zaroorat padh gayi toh?\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWhat if we need it later?<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s the question we ask ourselves before letting go of anything \u2014 from a packet of phooljadis from last Diwali to the box of decorations from that one <\/span>Christmas<\/span><\/a> party we had 20 years ago. This commitment to future zaroorat is admirable.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe Indian middle class\u2019 love for hoarding is legendary. And at the centre of this habit is the room that lovingly holds all the big and small treasures hidden by generations of family members. The efficiently named store room. It\u2019s a staple \u2014 a necessity that will not be denied \u2014 in houses that were built to hold many generations of the family under the same roof, together. In homes not large enough to dedicate a whole room to the pursuit of stockpiling bric-a-brac, the store room exists in the form of that black hole on top of the sturdy Godrej almirah or as gargantuan <\/span>VIP<\/span><\/a> suitcases that swallow everything, without even a burp of discomfort. The middle class Indian is nothing, if not jugadu.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nMy grandmother spent an inordinate amount of time in the K-family store room, I suspect she even loved it there more than in her bedroom. I recently discovered the reason why. If you\u2019ve never wandered into one in your life before, I highly recommend the experience. I\u2019m convinced that it is what inspired <\/span>JK Rowling<\/span><\/a> to include a Room of Requirement in Hogwarts, fully equipped with everything any student in the history of the school might ever want. The similarities are uncanny, when you think about it. The books tell us that Harry has seen broken and damaged furniture, piles of books, bottles of congealed potions, hats, jewels, cloaks, fanged frisbees, rusting swords, \u201ccorked bottles whose contents still shimmered evilly\u201d, and an assortment of other deliciously bizarre items.\u00a0<\/span>\n

The great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day.<\/blockquote>\nNot too long ago, I found myself in this fabled room in our home, and the scene before me was not entirely dissimilar. For some reason \u2014 undoubtedly sentimental and related to people who have long since left the land of the living \u2014 we still own the galla that my grandfather started his business with more than 50 years ago. Now I understand the emotional and possibly historic value of holding on to something that represents \u201chere\u2019s where it all started\u201d, but you won\u2019t believe how quickly emotions evaporate when you catch sight of worms wriggling out of a crack in the decaying wood and when you open the box, half a dozen dead cockroaches fall out. Very quickly. Soppy sentimentality is no match for roach powder.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWith trepidation, I moved toward a massive metal trunk, that looked a lot like a snot-coloured baby elephant piled high with books. Now, I\u2019ll admit there were no hats, jewels, or cloaks in it, but there <\/span>were<\/span><\/i> stacks of faded bedsheets. My mum pointed out some she\u2019d brought with her in her wedding trousseau, and some that my grandmother had brought from hers. Basically, we were in possession of tatters from five generations ago. All of them had been used within an inch of their lives, so I bet some one, just before tossing them in the bin, decided that there might be use from them just yet and it would be a good idea to dedicate Mumbai\u2019s <\/span>real estate<\/span><\/a> to it for decades, waiting for that one golden day when the need for it would arise.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nThe great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day. I doubt anyone in my family is ever going to go <\/span>\u201cAccio Kadhai!\u201d<\/span><\/a> while making chholes or will be heartbroken because we no longer have the one that has a very specific iron to steel to aluminium ratio that infuses the chhole with magical abilities (to what, not cause gas?), but who is going to tell my mother that maybe it\u2019s time to let go of the monstrosity the size of a baby\u2019s bathing tub? From my grandmother\u2019s Usha silai machine to the five-kilo box of chamki I bought in class three, our personal room of requirement was chock full of, yes, memories, but also junk we should have never left lying around for so long, collecting dust, occupying room and mind space, keeping us tethered to what are ultimately just things.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nWe never needed 99.9 per cent of the things that were so carefully stowed away in that room. Chholes were made hundreds of times, but that kadhai was always too much trouble. No one ever felt a burning desire to see their <\/span>bed<\/span><\/a> covered in the lurid cross-stitched flowers that were in vogue in my grandmother\u2019s time. What we <\/span>could<\/span><\/i> have used, perhaps, was the room, if it had been free. Maybe Babu Kaka (my grandfather\u2019s personal aide) wouldn\u2019t have had to sleep in the kitchen, and could have had some privacy instead. We\u2019ll never know. The next time you\u2019re tempted to hold on to something utterly useless because \u201cbaad mein zaroorat padh gayi toh?\u201d, don\u2019t ignore the voice of reason telling you not to.\u00a0<\/span>\n\nExcept chamki, because chamki is life. And I say this as I gleefully dab crafts-grade chamki onto the back of my hands. Please don\u2019t ask ridiculous questions like, \u201cWhy?\u201d<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day. We never need 99.9 per cent of the things. In my house, we still have the galla that my grandfather started his business with more than 50 years ago and a kadhai, the size of a bathtub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":306,"featured_media":5419,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[1236,9239,9240,9241,666,9242,5662,9243],"class_list":["post-5418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pov","tag-christmas","tag-hoarding","tag-indian-middle-class","tag-indian-store-room","tag-jk-rowling","tag-obsessive-hoarders","tag-real-estate","tag-vip-suitcases"],"yoast_head":"\n\u201cBaad Mein Zaroorat Padegi!\u201d Why Are Indians Such Obsessive Hoarders?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day. We never need 99.9 per cent of the things. In my house, we still have the galla that my grandfather started his business with more than 50 years ago and a kadhai, the size of a bathtub.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5418\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cBaad Mein Zaroorat Padegi!\u201d Why Are Indians Such Obsessive Hoarders?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day. We never need 99.9 per cent of the things. In my house, we still have the galla that my grandfather started his business with more than 50 years ago and a kadhai, the size of a bathtub.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5418\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-21T09:19:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1568880576.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sonali Kokra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"\u201cBaad Mein Zaroorat Padegi!\u201d Why Are Indians Such Obsessive Hoarders?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The great Indian store room has everything \u2014 all the things you can think of and millions you can\u2019t even imagine \u2014 waiting to be summoned some day. We never need 99.9 per cent of the things. 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