bushahr times tiffinbox starts blogging!

Got a call from my dad the other day. And the normal routinely conversation began. I updated him on new events or activities in the last 24 hours, as we have had the same discussion the previous day! Parents! They just cant refrain from calling you up in the expectation that maybe some magical turn of events happened in their children’s lives in a matter of few hours. But then you cant really blame them! You also feel the void, something missing, when the regular cycle of calls occasionally breaks from the other side with an unexpectedly long break. Now coming back to the conversation on that particular day, we started discussing books for the lack of any consequential life-changing incidents that day. He told me about these two books that he had just completed reading: “The monk who sold his ferrari” and “The white tiger”. More than anything else at that moment, I was intrigued by the way he procured those books! Now it’s not expected of him to go shopping, he never does! Only rarely, for bare essentials like clothes and a few other things, that too upon being repeatedly pursued by my mom. So before he could go about expressing his opinion on the 2 books, I put in my inquiry. “…last day in Mumbai, we and your brother were on our way to Prithvi theatre. The taxi stopped at the traffic signal. A boy approached with dozens of books displayed in his hand. Your brother bought these books for me. The book seller came down on the price as well. Heavy bargains! From 250 to 150!” And I interrupted, “you shouldn’t have bought them! It’s piracy!”

Now in retrospection, I wonder how buying those fake copies of novels upset me but never ever does it bother me to download movies from the internet! I love buying books. All originals ofcourse. Whereas i have to think twice before buying a DVD of a movie that i desperately need to stock. Is it the money? Can’t be, both are comparable. Is it then the value of money being spent? Well, may be. Now who would want to read an e-version of a novel, which gives you no pleasure of holding something tangible in your hands and where there is no joy of carrying it with you to places where it can be read (either to pass time, or simply to show off what an intellectual you are!). I guess for those who love reading books, ‘buying’ a book becomes a necessity. And since you are spending some amount, might as well chip in extra and get the ‘real’ stuff. But for those who wish to watch a movie, you’ve got to see it on a digital medium. So buying a movie is often seen as a wasteful expenditure (on the hindsight, if you have a pretty showcase, where you want to line up your most-loved movies, buying is a very good option). And so comes in the real desperate attempt on part of producers to give something ‘extra’ to the people and lure them into buying original DVDs. ‘Unedited scenes’, ‘never seen before scenes’, ‘director’s notes’, ‘an excluded video’ and host of other goodies get their fair share on the DVD. All those internet junkies who won’t survive a second without ripping the latest of movies and uploading them online definitely lack a taste in the ‘extras’ bit on the DVDs.

But then my friend backpacker_always is as usual adamant when he says, “dude, I am a green soldier… ever wondered how much technological waste it would create if everyone were to go about buying DVDs of all the movies! Download, watch and delete. Nothing is lost!” Some people just don’t understand… know what I mean?