Random Musings

If you have not Read Part I of my post, scroll down!

For the rest of you...

Where was I? Oh yea, on my way to complete Mission II. Getting the Mgmt Book. And there is only 1 place where I would go. BELLCO. (Rhyming bonus +5)

BELLCO is a great shop which has every book for School/ College Students. If you want a book, Bellco won’t let you down. So I go there ask for 'Essentials of Management by ...Stopped myself here. No need to waste time by telling them such trivial things like who the author his, Edition no etc. They are tuned to get it with as min info as possible. Cool right? Then the lady instinctively goes to the 2nd last book shelf and emerges.... empty handed. I was mildly perturbed by the scene unraveling in front of me. She is so deeply ashamed and does not even have the courage to tell it verbally. She makes a sad -no no nod of her head. aka, the book is not available. The 1st time I know that had happened. I had purchased over 7 books here for my three years @ Loyola. ZOMG!!!11

Now I noticed that exactly opposite to BELLCO was an another book store. When I say opposite, it’s about 5 feet away. It looked pretty well stocked too. I was tempted to go buy there but I felt the eyes of Bellco on me.-Betrayer. So, once u don’t get what u want, you turncoat?

Anyways, Now, I’m no John Kenneth Galbraith, but does it make economic sense to setup a book store right next to another one? I mean you lose practically half your customers right? I proceed to ask the new book guy for the book. It was there! He triumphantly got the book in his right hand and gave a smug grin to Bellco's Boys. The price of the book was 210. I forgot to tell you that ALL book stores in this area carry a 10% discount no matter what. I pay the guy 200 and he gives me back 10 rs.

Now wait a minute. I aint no Ramanjan either but, 10% of 210 was 21, the discount amount. So, 210-21= 189. I had paid 200 and got 10 rs back. So I paid 190. A small but vital discrepancy. Now I know most of you would let it go, but this is a matter of principle. And as you know I value them greatly. I told him the equation written above as lucidly as I could as I could see he was not the kinda guy who would clear a Math Olympiad in a hurry. He understood that he technically owed me a buck and grudgingly gave it to me. A moral victory for all principle holders. Caveat Emptor shop dudes!

Mission 2 accomplished

Finally, the last and final phase of the trip. What was it? C’mon think! Scrolled down? If u did, u need to pay more attention. If u did not, good keep it up. The Belt Repair.

Now, this is not an everyday thing. Very specialized skill is needed to fix stuff like broken buttons, unbudging Zips on a bag etc. I ask around and all point to 1 shop. Nargis Bag Works. Located on the 1st floor of the 100's of shops at R-St, I see I came to the right place. Hundreds of old zips, a huge box of tools, thread, screws, tailoring machines, scissors et al. There is 20 year old guy who takes a look at my belt. Diagnosed it in a jiffy and gets to work on it without uttering a word. I wanted to make so small talk to clear the silence..what to talk about ?His store, of course - Nargis..I knew she was an old hindhi actress dunno why she was in the news recently..maybe she died? Maybe this guys Grandmother named Nargis ?And she still alive and me telling nargis is dead when infact both of them Nargises could be alive and kicking. Zippped my trap shut.

Now, as a seasoned traveler, take a tip. In such shops, where the product is purely skill base like repair, you cannot ask him what the charges will be. Like A doctor. What ever he says at the end of it, you have to pay. You don’t have choice. Cause usually the charges would be really low and sometimes they might even do it for free. When the latter scenario arises, and you stupidly ask him the charges before hand, he will take it as a personal insult. That you dared offer him monetary compensation for a service he can render just by using his toes and blindfolded too.

But that feeling will always be there. Once he is done, you will have to; under any circumstance pay him what he deems worthy. Cause after the damage is done and you make a noise about the charges, he will say "Saar, moonadiya neega evalova ithu aahune ketirkalam" - 'Saar, before itself you could have asked the price'. I was under the vision that this is what was gonna happen given my earlier run in at the bus stop. But things worked out ok and he charged me 5 bucks which was fair.

2 out of 3 my way, not bad.
66.67% - Reminds me of my avg cat percentiles in my TIME Mocks.

Mission Accomplished.

Posted by Raghav on Friday, May 12, 2006 at 10:36 AM | Permalink