India Post - cultural things of interest; U.S. shipping turmoil, etc.

Mid-August, I placed an eBay order for a product made in India. The seller had no rating/feedback yet but had the best price for the item. I took a chance on them, supposing they might be selling it for a good price to garner some initial reputation points. The order page on eBay was updated a few days later with an India Post tracking number.

The estimated arrival date passed with no further update on the order. The India Post website kept giving me time-out errors; an alternate tracking website indicated "Parcel is not registered yet".

Checking around, I found that Trump removed the $800 De Minimus exemption on Aug 29. Imports of value less than $800 had previously been exempt from tariffs:

The de minimis rule also became increasingly contentious. Backers say it brings low prices to consumers. But critics say the rule hurts U.S. companies and allows unsafe or even illegal items to be imported without a close customs inspection.
...
The U.S. de minimis threshold used to be $200 — that is, packages worth $200 or less were not subject to taxes and tariffs. But in 2016, the country raised the threshold sharply to $800, one of the highest in the world. The spike came out of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama.
...
After the 2016 shift, de minimis shipments started to dominate cargo entering the U.S. The number of such shipments grew from 140 million in 2014 to 1.36 billion in 2024.
...
With Trump's new policy set to take effect on Friday, many international postal and shipping services are suspending delivery of some packages to the U.S. They're trying to figure out two things: how to handle new paperwork for millions of packages, and how to collect money for duties and taxes.

Other articles told of shipping nightmares:
Trump Tariffs Cause Chaos on Ebay as Every Hobby Becomes Logistical Minefield

‘It's Just a Mess:' 23 People Explain How Tariffs Have Suddenly Ruined Their Hobby


That seemed a likely explanation for my order being delayed. I worried what tariff amount would be applied to my item. From what I read online, there was no telling. Some people were getting notices of tariff + brokerage fee amounts totaling more than the original order price.

I messaged the seller to ask if they had even mailed the item yet, as I couldn't check the item's tracking. Two more weeks passed with no reply from the seller and no shipping update. The India Post website continued returning time-out errors whenever I tried to access it.

I grudgingly concluded I'd have to cancel the order and hope to get my money back. It wasn't a large amount, only $42.

But today my USPS "Daily Digest" email shows a new item, "Shipping Label Created, USPS Awaiting Item". I don't have any outstanding shipment besides the eBay item that I'm aware of. It doesn't sound like this would be the item from India, but perhaps? So I'll wait to find out what this thing is, before cancelling the eBay order.

Anyway, finally to the topic I wanted to post about: Today the India Post website finally works! For my item's tracking number, it returns "Article not booked - No booking information found for this article number." No good news there.

But the India Post website has interesting things in its menus! Under "Online Services - Featured", it lists "Holy Blessings" and "Gangajal Services".

Under "Holy Blessings", it lists a number of temples from various regions of India. People in India can order various Prasadam, religious offerings, to be mailed to the temples.

The "Gangajal Services" are where one can order small bottles of water taken from the river Ganges.

Under "Offerings - Schemes and Services", are listed "Banking Services" (similar to the German Postbank, I imagine), and "Insurance Services".

Under "Media - News and Updates" is a message dated 2025-08-22, "Suspension booking of all categories of mail destined to the USA". It states:

The Department of Posts informs the public that, due to recent regulatory changes introduced by the U.S. Administration under Executive Order No. 14324 (effective 29tn August, 2025), the booking and transmission of all categories of mail items destined for the United States - except documents/letters and gift items up to USD 100 in value - shall remain suspended with effect from 25th August, 2025.

This suspension has become necessary as U.S.-bound carriers have expressed their inability to carry postal shipments in the absence of fully defined mechanisms for duty collection and data exchange, as required by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The Department is closely monitoring the situation and is making every effort to restore services at the earliest. In case any item that has already been booked and could not be dispatched, postage refund can be claimed.

A subsequent message dated 2025-08-29 states (emphasis added):

In continuation with the Public Notice of even no. dated 22.08.2025, the suspension of booking of mail to the USA has been reviewed. In view of the inability of carriers to transport U.S.-bound mail, and undefined regulatory mechanisms, it has now been decided to completely suspend booking of all categories of mail, including letters/documents and gifts value up to 100 USD, destined to the USA.

The Department is closely monitoring the situation and is making every effort to restore services at the earliest. ...

Inconvenience caused to our esteemed customers is deeply regretted.

The News and Updates page includes several messages "from Hon'ble Minister of Communications". At first glance, that looked to me like "Horrible Minister of Communications", which was amusing.

Colorful sponges that scrub

Why did they recently stop selling the pretty multi-colored o-cel-o scrub sponges in physical stores? No one seems to know. (Google Gemini's explanation seemed to be made up, as the sources it listed weren't related to its answer.)

These sponges always used to come in multiple colors and/or patterns in each pack. New patterns were released every so often, so that each time I bought a pack, it was usually different from the last.

From what I've read, the sponge part is made from cellulose (from wood and plant fibers); only the scrubber part is made from plastic.

Their all-white colored Greener Clean™ Non-Scratch Scrub Sponges don't last nearly as long in my experience, and the color is boring. The webpage for these says "Make a difference with every clean using the 100% recycled scrubbing fibers... These dye-free and BPA-free dish sponges offer a more sustainable alternative to typical cleaning sponges."

The webpage for the pretty colored ones* says "Scrubbing fibers made from 100% recycled content", so I suspect they are about the same good or bad for the planet as the supposedly "greener" ones.

*The colored ones they sell now are not even as colorful as the old ones were. That photo shows both the top and bottom parts of the sponges in only green & white. Will there ever be orange & purple & yellow scrub sponges as in the past? Yes, there are some other brands but the ones I tried didn't work well.

Now when I go shopping, I only see scrub sponges in packs that are all-blue, all-pink, all-white, or all-brown, as well as the old-style heavy duty dark-green on yellow. And some all-purple ones with scrub "dots".

This is a small sampling of various colorful ocelo scrub sponges they used to sell, from Duck Duck Go's image-search results:



This is what a recent store had to offer in the sponge section; they all look pretty much like this now: