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September 17, 2004
Sony Walkman – Rs 200 only!
Our 1-month training at ‘The Statesman’, New Delhi was getting over, and we had to book out tickets back to Coimbatore. We, Chandru and me, were the last people to complete our summer training, while rest of the people had already joined the curriculum. Chandru was a philosopher whose only aim was to start a religion of his own, while I was a gadget freak.
As we were moving towards Nizamuddin to book our tickets, a local guy wearing blue jacket approached us. He removed a polythene bag from his jacket, unwrapped the paper cover, and showed us a sexy Sony Walkman. We weren’t interested, we told him ‘boss nahi chahiye’, and he interesting recorded our voice and played it for us. It was good to hear our own voice, and I was now interested to buy it.
I asked for the price and he said, you decide. We knew it was a second hand piece, or could be a stolen one too. I said Rs 200? And he insisted on Rs 400. 2 mns of conversation, and we decided we will buy only if he gives it to us for Rs 200. We started moving, and he packed the walkman in that paper packet, put it in the polythene bag, and kept it in his jacket.
We were sure that we wouldn’t take it till he gives it for the price we asked for. I was watching him without his knowledge, and he was following us. He came near us, and agreed for Rs 200 and asked us keep it immediately in our bag, as it is a stolen product. He removed the polythene bag packet from the jacket, and helped us keep in Chandru’s bag. I took out the money, and handed it over to him and suddenly he said – ‘are aapne to 400 bola tha, phir 200 kaise de rahe ho?’ (you said Rs 400 and why are giving only 200?). I was taken aback Chandru immediately wanted to take the walkman out of this bag, and this guy yelled some 4-5 names – hey changu, mangu, dhilip, suresh…and we were surrounded by these local thugs in fraction of second. Honestly, I was scared but Chandru kept his cool even when he wasn’t that comfortable with Hindi. He said, that we are from the press and let us go to the police – thankfully we had the visiting cards of our Chief Reported of Statesman.
The guys got a bit scared, and the guy who sold the walkman said it is ok, no issues - go ahead. He asked us to use another road, so that we don’t get caught by the police anywhere. We took the longer route – in fact had to walk some 5 kms before we could get a bus to Munirka, the place where we resided.
The incident left a bitter experience in our minds, and I kept appreciating Chandru for his bold action at the right time. We were scared so much so that we didn’t even bother to take the walkman out of our bag. We boarded the bus, and we kept mum. The whole incident disturbed us so much so that we dunno what to talk.
Munirka was just 1 minute away, and something struck me hard. I looked at Chandru, and the same thing struck Chandru too. We immediately got down from the bus, and opened the bag. We took out the polythene bag, unwrapped the paper cover, and to our shock what we got was a wooden block! We had paid Rs 200 for a wooden piece!! Chandru dropped the stuff down, and we continued moving towards our room in utter silence!
Posted by Kenni at September 17, 2004 06:14 AM