It’s a souvenir, not junk

It’s a souvenir, not junk

Those who love travelling, seeing and visiting different places in India and around the world, are eagerly looking forward to the time when the Covid threat is safely gone and they can again board a bus, train, or plane to travel to some destination for a vacation.

In the meantime they look at the objects they have bought and collected from their earlier travels and reminisce over these sojourns, the places they saw, the good time they had, and certainly the food they ate. These souvenirs, though not objets d’art, occupy a pride of place on shelves, in glass cases, stuck on fridge, some being used daily or even  wrapped lovingly in rice or bubble paper and kept in cardboard or wooden boxes half-forgotten, to be taken out and admired once in a while.

I am not talking of memorabilia and tokens reminding of special events like the sepia- hued photos of your first birthday, the first wrist watch your grandfather gave you (of course, it doesn’t work now), the audio cassette with the song you sang at the college farewell (you don’t have a cassette player any more), the red, heavy, Banarasi sari you wore when you got married (in the dry heat of May), the dry shriveled flower your first crush gave to you two decades ago, the soft pink smock your daughter wore when she was born, the first drawing your son made of a flower pot (and you realised that at least one career was not an option for him), the empty bottle of Blue Label you opened on your silver wedding anniversary (Even if you were forever unhappy with your decision to get married, the milestone day brought consolation… this too shall pass). I am also not referring to the collectibles or articles that you order online or buy from collectors or exchange in a senseless shopping spree.

No, I am talking purely of reminders and trophies of your trips and travels. And believe me that alone is a lot to talk about.

Pavlos Paraskevaidis in his Values of Souvenirs as commodities https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2014.10.014 quotes Lasusa (2007), Swanson and Timothy (2012):

There are indications and records (that souvenirs existed in the ancient world. It is also known that during the 17th century rulers of Germanic states started to formulate the ‘Wunderkammer’ (wonder chamber), a room where they placed their private collections of curiosities that comprised exotic material objects and artifacts However, a transitional period for souvenirs was the 17th and 18th century, when Grand Tour participants brought back home miniature replicas of the European sites they visited, as well as the 19th century, when Thomas Cook marked the beginning of modern tourism.

The industrial revolution, during the later part of the 18th century and the 19th century, marked the beginning of mass production of material objects, which has also affected the production of souvenirs. However, mass production of souvenirs became a global phenomenon only after World War II, when tourism movements started to become a privilege of the middle-class in the western societies In brief, the industrial revolution and the expansion of tourism activity transformed the search for antiquities and authentic artifacts of pre-industrial era to increased demand for mass-produced souvenirs.

For most of us these baubles, knickknacks, novelties or trinkets with the name of the place printed  on it, take a considerably long time to search for, survey, contemplate and in currency conversion on the phones or with our fingers drawing figures in the air before finally we commit to buy it.

As a young couple when we started travelling we would lug around suitcases (strolleys did not exist) and airbags; the temptation was to buy things we did not see in our city or country and which would keep the memories of the places we were visiting, alive by their presence: a clay plate from Venice, a wood carving from Bali, a tiny jade elephant pendant from Zurich, a huge metal Balaji wall hanging from Hyderabad, tiny marble Taj Mahal from Agra. Some of them afterwards seemed tacky and dusting them was a chore I hated. It was some time before we felt the futility of buying such inconvenient items and started buying masks, which was a unique item those days. So their number too slowly grew as we continued to blow up one salary (incidentally, mine, because it was more meagre of the two) on these travels. Yet, with time, they did not seem to fulfil any other purpose except sitting on the wall attracting spiders and lizards (argh!). So we moved on to searching for utilitarian items- an orange towel from Mauritius, a Victrinox from Zurich, tea and coffee from Nairobi, and even a couple of tee shirts from some destinations.

Ryanair flights made my life easier and we were forced to pick smaller objects like mugs as reminders of our travels. Now we have a collection of all kinds of mugs. The problem is everyone is attached to the one he/she chose. My son’s condition was I could use his FCB mug, but it should not chip or break. I could neither ensure that nor did I want to take a risk, so now it also sits on a shelf with the others, forcing me to get up once in a while with a duster in hand wiping the dust around the clean circles they make. Also, sometimes paying 10 Euros for a mug did not feel good to my Indian mind and then I realised why fridge magnets are so popular. Now one side of the fridge is covered with these magnets and I am yet to pick up a fine brush to clean the tine nooks and curves of the designs. That is why the photos below are borrowed from another ardent traveller and a very dear friend.

Photo courtesy: Lily Pandeya

The first time somebody goes to a ‘phoren’ country, they are overcome with emotion at seeing what they had always seen in pictures only. These can be metal, clay, plaster of Paris or resin miniature models or plates (with stands/hooks) depicting buildings and bridges (Twin towers of Kuala Lumpur, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Golden Gate bridge, Statue of Liberty, cars (Rolls Royce).

These can be T-shirts with I love New York/London/Berlin/Tokyo written in various fonts and red hearts printed on them. Or they can be stoles, scarves, hats, ties, socks, table cloths, napkins, tea-towels with pictures of monuments, buildings, and quotes about the city, country or people.

They can be fans, dolls, toys, marbles or painted small rocks.

You can also pick up objects with dual purpose as they can be of daily use like mugs, glasses, beer jugs, trays, bowls made of china, porcelain, clay, glass. My niece Reva used to buy shot glasses even though she is not a tippler of any stature. My own favourite these days is thimbles.

Key rings, bottle openers, ball pens and fridge magnets are generally the easiest to find, lightweight and inexpensive, they occupy very little space, hence among the favourites. 

Smokers prefer pipes, cigars, cigarettes, cigarette cases, lighters, snuff boxes.

One can select from the array of small boxes of papier mache, ceramic, wood, iron, copper and silver- painted, embossed, with enamel, expensive or otherwise.

Christmas ornaments and hangings - balls, angels, stars, snowflakes, snow globes, and several Santa-related items made of glass, ceramic, papier mache, felt or wool etc. also disappear very fast especially around Christmas from the shops selling them.

From the beach stalls it is easy to pick up sarongs, towels, and articles made of shells.

Earlier, people used to buy post cards and send them to family and friends to tell them of their holiday. But now why would anyone write a postcard when they can bombard people with live photos faster on their smart phones?

Items of use like soaps, candles. And of course food items, gourmet or not- cheese, chocolates, candy, sausages, olives, preserves, wine, dried fruits, spices, tea and coffee are also very popular because they also make great gifts for friends, family and colleagues. 

The discerning ones may choose paintings, leather bags and shoes, semi-precious stones- carved or not, jewellery and perfumes. An uncommon case would be book lovers who might find a rare book or edition or special paper/binding.

Some places are famous for their unique or hand-crafted items which can be bought as souvenirs. Cuckoo clocks from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, fashion accessories from France and Italy, cosmetics from the west, Matroyshka dolls from Russia, batik from Indonesia, blue evil eye beads and hangings from Turkey, Sriracha from Thailand and Vietnam, embroidery and silk from China (or should I not say that given the situation these days).

Matroyshka dolls from Russia

Souvenirs are generally inexpensive. That reminds me how I was always a little sad over the steep price of cuckoo clocks and not being courageous enough to part with that much money to buy one. When I told somebody about this sorrow in my life, he was quick to console me with, “Don’t worry. They do not work in our hot and humid weather and star lagging and invariably stop working.”

I also remember finding a beautiful wooden model of train in Erlangen (when Deutsche Mark was still the currency in Germany) but it cost Rs 3000 in our currency, that too in 1997. No, it did not seem worth the price. Finally I settled for a cross stitch pattern being sold in the weekly market and it still brings me pleasure.

Some of these mass-produced items might be second-rate in quality. In Athens I bought an expensive t-shirt for my son with something in Greek written on the front. The very first time it whirled in the washing machine, it behaved like a rabied animal. The sleeves shrank and the tee stretched into a long garment, making it unusable.

The last checkpoint during a journey is the duty-free shop at the airport before you board a flight and you want to get rid of the currency leftover from the trip which you might never use the rest of your life. If you are lucky you might have enough left to buy a bottle of the particular wine/liquor that place is known for.

As most of these souvenirs are mass-produced, the prices are not alarming. One minus point can be spending time and energy in choosing a souvenir with great care and finding that the piece you bought is imported. It was most probably made in a tiny hole of a place in Bangladesh, Vietnam or even India where labour is cheap. The biggest disappointment generally is when you buy a souvenir and just as you start to grow attached it, you check the piece and there in smaller print is written, Made in China.

It is not always the price but the tale behind the object that matters. There are some articles which gain importance because of the circumstance in which they came into possession.

The difference between these objects and ordinary souvenirs is the intention ascribed to them. While souvenirs and mementoes are brought back home to serve as a reminder of the journey, these objects are acquired for different reasons and only start functioning as souvenirs in retrospect. (N Collins-Kreiner, Y Zins in Journal of Heritage Tourism).

They generally have no monetary value but are somewhere very high up on the list of tour memories. The gluhwine glass you mistakenly brought back from the Weihnachtsmarkt (instead of returning it and getting your 3.5 Euros back), the bottle-opener you borrowed from a stranger, a heavy metal key to the hotel room you stayed in but forgot to return, the 3-D glasses your child got for watching a movie. It can even be a pair of throwaway chopsticks from a roadside restaurant, an abominable burger key ring which the passenger in the row behind you gave to pacify your bawling child, a penny you found on the road and you stopped to pick up even as the signal turned green and the cars honked and the drivers cursed you on a busy road.

 

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