Among the knick-knacks for sale are a variety of porcelain knobs for drawers and ceramic hooks à la Victoriana. One such wall hook is decorated with a postage stamp showing Queen Victoria. My first question upon seeing consumer goods is always "How much?" - My second question is always "Where is it manufactured?" In this instance, the answer is India.
I wonder if the Indians who churn out these wall hooks realise that somebody is taking the Mickey, or thumbing their noses at them (i.e. exploiting them). Even if they do, they may well be too young/poor to know who the well nourished woman is, or too hungry to care.
Funny how things turn out: decades have passed since all that rhetoric about "independence" from the imperial occupiers and the coming of "democracy" and "free market forces", yet India still has to churn out goods with the face of the Empress emblazoned on them.
Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria
