Network Past Issues

The emergence of Parispur and Rioganj

The virtual world is glamorizing not only the urban space but also pushing the rural denizens to behave in more contemporary ways

Globalization is a fever that is fast catching. It is not only permeating Tier II and Tier III cities but also villages. This realization dawned on me while watching Masterchef Australia Season 8, my favourite TV show, and snacking off a Mac-and-cheese meal ordered through an e-tailer app over my phone. I’ll make it more explicit: the realization hit me while watching the new ‘Citizens of Fashion’ campaign from Amazon Fashion. I found myself singing “Kamlapur ko tum bana do Paris, Parispur” non-stop; the jingle refused to go out of my head with â€œParispur” buzzing like a leitmotif.

The following day I watched the advertisement carefully in the middle of my all time favourite Masterchef Australia. Trying to unravel its message I finally understood what the ad was trying to convey: that Tier II and Tier III denizens are becoming fashionable and taking to international brands.Coming to grips with the ad’s messagemy mind drifted to the days spent at IRMA as a student. What about the villages, I found myself asking. Had anything changed in the rural setup?

As anyone acquainted with IRMA is aware, one of the sterling components of the Institute’s PRM curriculum is its village fieldwork segment.

I recalled the times I had spent in villages during my induction, field work, and now-defunct OTS segment during my life at IRMA. I had spent much time in a village called Dhelana in Palanpur district as well as in Abhload in Dahod, Tunda-Wandh in Kutch and Kawant in Vadodara. While all these villages belong to one state – Gujarat – they are vastly different from one another.

Memories took me back to Dhelana, which is a village divided by communities- even their milk cooperatives are separate. Yet the amount of butter generated here is nothing short of phenomenal. In this village of huge farmlands, abundant livestock, and flowing rivers of ghee I remember having seen quite a few young girls in jeans and tees. Young bahus in some households were wearing salwar kameezes minus the pallu on the head.

When I visited Abhload, one of the most beautiful villages in the state, it had just one pukka washroom at the time. Weapons and armoury dominated households in this largely tribal village that was so picturesque with its corn fields and eye-catching lake that it merited a song sequence in a Yash Chopra movie. The women, I noticed, were in saris, men in dhotis and kediyas mostly, and some in trousers and shirts. The youth expressed different sartorial preferences, however, with young men taking to denims and tees and women salwar kameezes and ghaghras.

I witnessed a similar trend in Tunda- Wandh and in remote Kawant, a highly backward tribal village with fabulous roads dotted with farms with no hotels or restaurants in sight. Here, I saw most women dressed in ghaghras while the men went about in trousers and shirts.

All this was five years ago, when e-tailer apps were relatively unheard of. One fact stood out clearly: men’s fashion had modernized keeping pace with the times while female sartorial preferences were directly influenced by location per se.

I wonder if fashion in these villages has changed with higher internet penetration. 

Having lived in Tier II and Tier III cities my entire life, I have seen quite a few households changing their wardrobes keeping pace with the times. But not everyone. Inside a mall in a city like Baroda one can spot women in shorts and skirts as well in saris with pallus drawn over their heads. I remember someone having observed that a mall is a place where the Mercedes owner and the driver shop under the same roof.

The story is not very different in the case of e-tailers, especially with regard to their app strategies. Easy accessibility of smartphones and mobile internet has made e-tailing apps equally popular and accessible. What is more, small shops in Tier II and Tier III cities have started selling over e-tailers. An article purchased at a street market in Mumbai’s Hill Road may also be found on Amazon at the same price perhaps (if bargaining didn’t bring it down).

The Amazon commercial also portrays denizens Tier II or Tier III cities like Varanasi, Kamlapur, or Raiganj as fashion aspirants who are aware of international brands. Small wonder that international brands like Prada, Versace, Michael Kors, Gucci and Guess emerge in several desi avatars from these cities. Browse over to the countless number of selling groups on Facebook and you will realize that the Emporio Armani loafers or Calvin Klein watch that someone in Delhi just bought one day ago has been purchased in its indigenous version by someone else in Anand. With e-tailing, however, the chances of originals being bought tend to go up. Visit the local office of Flipkart or Amazon in a Tier II or Tier III city and you will be staggered by the sheer volume of parcels flooding them.

While Amazon Fashion may be the fastest growing store in Amazon.in e-tailing is on the rise. Punit Soni who, until recently, was the Chief Product Officer at Flipkart having moved into Venture Capital lately, realized this in a hands on kind of way in 2015. During Flipkart’s Big Billion Sale in October 2015 Soni would accompany Flipkart’s delivery boys transporting goods in and around Bengaluru. His visits took him to places where people were working without network coverage. Yet they still managed to get their parcels delivered. People residing in suburbs where delivery was impossible had parcels delivered to their offices since they were situated in more urbanized areas.

It is no exaggeration that apps have led to a kind of fashion revolution occurring in varying degrees of acceleration across location and gender parameters thanks to increased purchasing power. In today’s times, fashion belongs to everyone be it someone in Paris, Mumbai, or Anand.

Fans of Skechers shoes, for instance, are unlikely to find them in any store of Anand. They can, however, go to the Jabong site and make their purchases right away. The more price conscious buyers can check the price tag each day with discounts changing frequently. As a kid, the only branded shoes that would be available in Anand would be Bata inside their small shop on Station Road, which now sports a jazzy look having gone multi-storied.

The average Indian consumer is turning truly global irrespective of location and origin. Accessing e-tailing apps is getting simpler with everybody owning a smartphone and a data connection to go with it. Underlying the success of these market ventures is a growing supply chain capability to these cities. Delivering products to smaller locations requires building of infrastructure or tapping into any existing networks to handle the volume. Quite a few luxury brands rely on India Post to deliver their products whereas others tie up with major courier brands that, in turn, join hands with local brands. Amazon and Flipkart have their own delivery services in place that tie up with local courier agencies to make the last mile reach possible.