A Breed of Counterfeits

Chapter 4: Fahim

"It's just a paper, until it is printed with ego. Then it's called a certificate."

- P. L. Deshpande

Fahim kept his Gucci bag down. Although the bag was premium, the load in it wasn't lighter. The local train was crowded as it is on a typical Monday morning. Today was his lucky day, though; he had a place to sit, which he usually didn't. The last time he got a seat on the train was about three months back on his birthday. Another reason for getting a place to sit today was because he left earlier than he usually did.

Getting a seat in Mumbai local trains is considered as a sign of eliteness. One moment you are standing, and as the local slows down, people start shifting for someone standing far away from the door that can slowly move towards the door. It's like a Rubik's cube - for the one tile to change position, every tile has to change, and once the person gets down, the rest of the people occupy their places. Precisely like a Rubik's cube! This continually moving Rubik's cube of people is an everyday scenario in Mumbai locals.

People who occupy seats don't say this; neither do people standing to acknowledge, but there is a cold war going on between the two. The standing person waits desperately hoping, looking at the person sitting to vacate the seat and get down of the train, while the person sitting down - oblivious to the desperation of his standing counterpart, is enjoying his time, enjoying his luxury in such a way that he is unaware that he would have to vacate this seat ever. He sits there like he owns the place, and he was born there, and he would take his last breath on it.

Fahim thought about it. It's just like human life. We clutch on to useless things like they are the ultimate and everlasting - often oblivious that irrespective of the fate of these things, the fate of the owner himself is sealed, he is going to depart someday. Materialism they called it, and he never liked materialism. 'The life of this world is merely the enjoyment of delusion,' said Quran.

The world is designed in such a way that you fall trap to materialism, and there is no way you could escape it. Even going to the Himalayas to lead an ascetic life would require money to buy a ticket to the Himalayas, and the ticket doesn't come cheap. For that matter, nothing comes cheap, even a simple handbag like his was not cheap. Forget the fact that its Gucci, even an unbranded bag, would be expensive.

Why do we need a handbag? Because we have to go to work, he thought. Cant, you go to work without a handbag? No, how else would you travel with your office things? Okay, so why not buy a basic handbag, an unbranded one? The difference in the cost of unbranded and branded one is minimum, plus the sum total of future expenses of mending the unbranded handbag would be more than the price of the branded ones. So better buy a branded handbag. At least that's how Fahim thought, and he believed it to be the most logical one. Similar decisions had led him to own Ralph Lauren shirts, and Polo and Wills trousers and a Patek Philippe watch. He worked as a brand manager himself, and what good is a brand manager if he doesn't use branded products himself? That was his last argument convincing himself to buy branded products.

The man standing next to Fahim had the latest smartphone, launched a week ago. He could have gone on a trip abroad with that money or invested it elsewhere. Why buy a piece of metal which would wither off within a year or two, or maybe five. A watch would be a good alternative. Good swiss watches cost over 30,000 Rupees. A Rolex would be over 1 Lakh Rupees. He could have bought a Rolex. Although that is an expensive product, its useful and long-lasting than a smartphone.'

Fahim did not notice that the man was wearing expensive branded clothes, or he had a Seiko watch. The only thing he noticed was that he had a better phone than Fahim had.

Fahim sighed and pulled out his old phone, slightly dented on the left corner, and a tiny piece of glass cracked - otherwise in excellent condition. His phone model was now four years old, and he still used it because Sana - his girlfriend had gifted it to him. At least that's what he told everyone. It's a whole different story that Fahim had insisted to Sana giving it to him, and within a couple of months, he was going to get married and was going to ask for the latest phone in his marriage. Sana's father would never deny his request. That and the newest smartwatch, perfect gifts which he would flaunt in his marriage. The time had come for his current Patek Phillipe watch to go.