| Author | Message | ||
     Ipc302 Moderator Username: Ipc302 Post Number: 10803 Registered: 02-2008 Rating: N/A |
baa rasaru...best part is when i am airports i browse novels randomly and pick one that I like....if i buy a book based on reviews i am predisposed to liking it or have some sort of hype reading it monnane THE LOST SYMBOL ettina airport nundi...bandal undhi storyline..only good thing is some history on the architecture of DC......no harm no foul | ||
| Nanigadu Side Hero Username: Nanigadu Post Number: 7442 Registered: 02-2008 Posted From: 204.92.92.4 Rating: N/A |
good one bhaya, liked it. Jo Na Janey Haq Ki taaqat Rabb Na Dewey Usko Himmat. | ||
| Film_fan Hero Username: Film_fan Post Number: 19426 Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 78.147.252.106 Rating: N/A |
as always......good one..... We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. -- Aristotle | ||
| Platypus Junior Artist Username: Platypus Post Number: 770 Registered: 01-2008 Posted From: 122.175.15.185 Rating: N/A |
My name is Venu and this is a small slice of my life. I am not a Steve Jobs and will never be one. I have not explored the Eastern mysticism or acid. I will never be a leader. But that's just who I am. Whether or not I am proud of this fact, I am not sure. It would be good to live in a big palace in the silicon valley I guess. Maybe I would enjoy the land of opportunities - with the Netflixes, the iTunes matches, the Amazon Instant Videos and the generally high quality lifestyle. But then, that's not what I am. That's not where I am. I am in India. In a crowded metropolitan city where it takes an hour to drive a distance of 10 kilometers. I don't get Netflix but that is OK. Around 10 movie halls are within walking distance from my home. And the ticket is barely a dollar! So what is my story? I have established what this story is not. But I haven't talked about what it is. To tell you frankly, I don't have a story. The media talks about the do-ers. The Disney movies talk about the celebration of human spirit and the journey to succeed. There are the goners as well who try something unique but do not succeed and are relegated to the dark dungeons. Between the do-ers and the goners, are men like me - those who have nothing to boast of. They have no vision, no idea, no theme in their life. They don't try anything. They just live - in fact just exist and call it living. Once in a while, they do go to an Art of Living workshop but the euphoria generally subsides within a week or two. If you ask me, the goners are much better than these idiots. Take the ideal idiot's word it. The idiots have no real sense of purpose at all. They are merely vegetables. That cabbage skin you get when you order a sizzler... Mostly you just ignore it. So why am I writing this story when there is absolutely nothing worth telling a story? Because I can. I have a computer and a word processor. I have the internet. I can post anything I want to. This computer by the way is perched on a table that is adjacent to a large window from where I can see the world outside - a busy street of sorts with a number of vehicles and dogs. There are some rotten tomatoes and some vendors as well. And there is Nitya. She would now come in and ask me if that wretched new book of Lee Child is available. I don't really understand how these folks assume that a book released at 12 o'clock the previous midnight by a Frisco based publisher would miraculously land on the shelf in a dilapidated mom and pop store in the darkest corner of an Indian city. The expectations need to be realistic. Amazon would ship that book to them I am sure but they want to buy it from a store. "No ma'am, not yet. Will let you know once I get the stock." I tell her. The wave of disappointment engulfs her completely. She comes here every week - Wednesdays at 11am - almost always on the dot. Her usual routine is to scan the bookshelves generally and check if there are some interesting books. When there is a big release however, she would ask me specifically for that title. Truth be told, she is one of the very few customers still clinging on to the traditional way of buying books. Most of the folks have already moved to Flipkart.com. They provide a handsome discount on every title, which we cannot match and deliver the books within a couple of days. Our business has dropped 60% in the last one year. It is a foregone conclusion that we would be selling idli and dosa within a year from now. "You can probably try flipkart" I tell her. She shakes her head. "No. I don't want to." "Everyone is doing it ma'am. It is ok. They offer cash-on-delivery too" I respond. Frankly I don't care anymore about this bookstore. It is already a loss making venture. I will probably move on to idli or just build a shopping complex here and live off the rent. "There is a difference" Nitya says, "between shopping online and buying it from a store. Here I can come in - browse without any specific title in mind and pick up something interesting. Online shopping requires me to be totally clear on what I want. My brain is not always that focused." I nod. I know what she is talking about. The same thing can be said about cable TV as well. All the shows are now available on the internet. So why bother paying the cable guy? The point is, after a hard day's work you slouch on the couch and just flip the channels and start watching that Die Hard movie the three hundred and seventieth time. That act of flipping the channels is the best part of watching TV. If you cut the cable, you need to know what to watch in order to watch TV. Too much of work for a couch potato. "Look" Nitya tells me, "I don't want you to go away. I mean this shop - it should not fold. That would be a disaster. If everyone shops online, what happens to the personal touch - the interaction and the discovery?" "There's nothing better than Google for discovery." I say "Yeah, if you know what you are looking for." She responds. She walks off saying goodbye. I return to the computer and start typing some nonsense. Her last words before leaving the store are still ringing in my ears. "You are important to us. A knowledgeable book-vendor is hard to come by these days. Maybe online shopping will eventually takeover but let us hope we can delay it as much as possible. I don't think I would be able to find another store where I can walk in and get a recommendation of A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain." I am not a do-er. I am not a goner - yet. I am just an ordinary book clerk. But perhaps I am very good at it. dEvO mahEsh roopENa: Superstar Mahesh Rocks! |
