Statutory Warning

Statutory Warning: This blog contains my vague recollections of the past week. It may be broken and inconsistent at parts, but any such occurrence is purely incidental. ;)

Whew!!!, that was one crazy week…(more than a week, but even then…). It all started after I got back to Chennai to write my JMET (for the uninformed, it’s a management aptitude test for the IITs and IIScs, whole load of crap if u ask me, cuz the math was so hard that even the best would solve a max of bout 6 out of 40). Well, I’d better stop cribbing bout it cuz I could fill up pages with my rant bout it (exam went well though…).. ;).

So, like I was saying, it all started when I got back to madras to write my exam – was real busy chillin out and doing absolutely nothing that u could say I was on my own trip. In fact I even drank the day before the exam!!!. Had a nice time there (except for the fact vini wasn’t there, kept calling her in bet to find out what was happening… lol, was fun writing each other mails all over again. Kept waiting, checking my inbox to see in any new mails had landed. And when I finally get one, spend minutes staring at the screen and smiling… ha ha- twas real fun).Even went to culturals of the Madras Christian College, a friend was singing… was there for moral support… ;). Was real fun listening to the music and stuff, exceeded my expectations a lot… The highlight of the day was seeing the MCC band play, and I must say that they were refreshingly different. Had a few good comps, one of em was really fun- called “symbi”, bout this girl symbi and bout dating her… haven’t laughed listening to a band play before, but then this was great stuff.

I must say that I usually hate going for rock shows cuz the bands usually muddle up great sounding songs, but these guys were crisp, they knew what they were doing, and they did it well. They also gauged the crowd well and on the whole was an enlivening experience. Would rate them among the best bands I’ve seen play (not because the others have been bad, but just cuz I felt their songs synced well…).

Also, another highlight of the week was that I got onto the first metro train in my life (yup…u heard right). And contrary to my belief, it was real fun- the journey was fast, convenient (lol, I stay near a station…), clean and to top it off was real cheap. At the end of the day, was real impressed. I’ve resolved to go by metro whenever I can rather than taking my bike and wading through dust and traffic. Its good that the people of Chennai have this added lifeline, something that puzzled me was that the journey was so cheap that I’d really wanna know if the government was really making any money out of it.

Well, now I’ll get into the highlight of the week – buying my first digicam. Before I get into the details, I’ll lay the groundwork for a bit. Been wanting to buy a digital camera for the past few months, did quite a lot research too, but when it came to actually buying it, always used to run into some roadblock or the other. Finally, it so happened that I was talking to my dad and he said, “Buy it tomorrow, if u want to…”. And that was the final nail. Got to my comp and started researching models and finally after comparing all sorts of specs, narrowed down my choices to two- first being the Canon A520, the second being the Canon A95. Both had their pros and cons, but preferred to go with the former. Mainly cuz there was a difference of bout 5 grand between the two and which I thought wasn’t worth it… checked out the models on Saturday at premier stores in spencers, negotiated the price for a nifty 13K and told the guy that I might come on Monday and left. It so happened that I had to leave on Sunday night, so had to pick it up in the evening before I left, or else I wouldn’t have a cam for Christmas. Pushed off for spencers with my two sidekicks - Joby n Sam… ;). Got there by bout 6pm, went to the store and said the words I’d been wanting to say for so long, “Hi, I wanna pick up a Canon A520”. I watched as the guy who initially smiled on recognizing me, slowly stopped smiling, turned serious and to my dismay said, “I’m sorry sir, we’re outta stock”. And I’m standing there with an expressing, WTF???????. Thinking to myself- Man, this is such an anticlimax. The friggin one time I have ething working my way and I’m here to get the camera and here’s what happens. Joby n Sam know I’m disappointed and try telling me that its ok and that they’d pick it up for me (lol, was sweet of em). Anyways, not to be outdone, I decided to screw with the guy, slowly started telling him that I was working in bangalore and it so happened that I’ve gotta reach there on Monday itself and if I didn’t pick it up today, I’d have no other option but to buy it from some place in bangalore cuz I wasn’t gonna be comin back to madras in a long time and also cuz I already had all the money ready. And Bang!!!, that did the trick, the guy who initially told me there was no chance I’d get it before Monday asked me to wait for a few min, he scurried off made a few phone calls, got back and told me with a beaming face, “Sir, we can get it for u, but do u mind waiting for a while, its gotta come from our godown. We’ll give it to u by 730pm”. i told him that, that would do and that I’d take a walk thru spencers and get back. We go browsing thru landmark, and finally at bout 725pm, I get a call asking me to come over to the camera showroom. Hurry off to the place, to find the same guy with this huge grin on his face. Gave me the camera, asked me to open the seal and verify its contents. After showing me the basic functions, handed me the bill with a smile and said that he’s given it to me 5 minutes earlier than he’d promised. Anyways, all in all, a win-win situation, I got a good deal and also more importantly on the same day; for him, he managed to get one closer to his sales target. Made me think a lot bout how much better customer service is getting in India….

Anyways, me tired now. Recounting stuff that happened is hard, also lost the flow cuz I got a phone call. Can’t seem to think straight now. Well, along the next few days I’d been to mysore to check out my cousin’s bike which was being repaired there. Finally, got back home a couple fo days back. Well, that’s about it for now…