There is this story in the MahaBharata, where Guru Dronacharya curses Karna that when he needed it the most, he'd forget how to use the Brahmastra. The Guru gave this curse because Karna lied about his lineage to learn from the great master. The master considered this as an act of treason and hence gave Karna this curse.
I committed a similar act of treason recently and the very purpose for which I did it is now lost on me.
There is this ad promoting Sun TV's DTH service that keeps getting shown on the Sun network. Those familiar with the ad would know that it features my current dream-girl Tamanna. The ad has a digitally altered voice in the jingle and added to the fact that I am totally distracted when she is on screen, I have not been able to follow what is being said, or rather sung, in the ad.
Apart from the "Veetukku veedu Sun Direct" part, I couldn't decipher anything. My mother has been constantly asking me to interpret the words and like I mentioned before, I have been unable to decode the words since my brain was allocating all available resources to my eyes to see Tamanna.
But yesterday, after her incessant pleas, I decided to really help my mother. And so believe it or not, I did THE blasphemous act and closed my eyes when the ad came up. And lo!, I was able to understand some of the words in the ad. However with overwhelming guilt getting added to my really bad memory and probably some higher power cursing me for this act, I now don't remember the words at all. I just know that there was an "adhiradee service" somewhere, but there is nothing else left in my memory.
Serves me right for closing my eyes when Tamanna was on screen.
Showing posts with label cheat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheat. Show all posts
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Road Trip to Vaitheeswaran Kovil - Part 10 ::: Why, not having cash turned out to be beneficial
The bill had a lot of items listed one after the other, with the price for each marked against it. I guess that's what a bill is supposed to look like, but I am clarifying it, just in case you have any doubts.
But the most important number in that bill was at the bottom (duh!) and it was 695.00. Yes. Almost 700 bucks for 9 archanai thattu saamaan. Apart from the usual stuff in such thattus, let me list out the special items for V.Kovil:
1. a piece of jaggery each, for the 3 of us. hardly 10gms i think.
2. 2 pieces of red cloth. quality of the material? u know the blue cloth we use for car cleaning. exact same material, just the color was different.
3. 3 small garlands. no fancy flowers in them. just regular white and green garland.
4. 3 sets of salt and pepper packets. barely a handful in each.
5. 5 neiy villaku. each costs 5 rupees in Besant Nagar temple.
So these f*ers were obviously trying to steal us. We might as well have had our car stopped on the way by highway robbers and still spent less!
Since we didn't have that much cash on hand, and since these vultures started crowding around us, our survival instincts got the better of us. We started arguing with the buggers.
There was nothing special in the arguments actually. I did start off disputing some of the items he had listed. Those were the things he hadn't supplied. My mother was obviously able to question the rates of the garlands et al. There was lot of back and forth talk and those guys actually said that they had missed out to include some other items and if they add those, it would come to 750 rupees.
The guys on the opposite side were mainly 3 in number. The first guy who lead us into the temple and the other guy who filled in for him inside. The third guy had come in only for settlement.
In the whole fight that was taking place, my mother dealt what I consider to be the master stroke. She went on questioning why this 3rd guy was there in the whole discussion. She demanded that he vacate the place and that she would talk only to the 2 guys we had interacted with.
Even if I had argued with those guys in full blast, I wouldn't have had the presence of mind to reduce the strength of the opponent. That move really helped us. We now had to deal with only 2 guys and obviously it strengthened us.
They tried an emotional blackmail that they didn't want even one paisa and we retorted that we would rather put the whole 700 bucks in the hundial than give it to them. But we also told them very clearly that we were willing to settle for Rs.400 only and that too only because we made the mistake of not asking them for the price up-front.
That's all the cash we had loosely on hand. My father was carrying some 2K in a big wallet. But in all our visible money holders, we barely had Rs.400. We gave it to them making it very clear that we really didn't have the cash.
My mother's argument and the fact that we didn't have visible cash on us, kinda helped and the lepers went away with the money.
We then set off to Hotel Sadhabishekam for breakfast. Surprisingly, their kitchen closes by 9.30 AM for breakfast and they reopen only around 11.30 for lunch. It was 9.40 when we reached there and so we missed out on what is considered to be good food in that neighborhood.
We couldn't find any other good restaurant in that area and headed back to our Hotel in Sirkazhi. A few 100 metres before our hotel, we saw a decent looking joint named Vasantha Bhavan and ate there. The stuff was really good.
After that, we returned to the Hotel and there it was pack-up time.
But the most important number in that bill was at the bottom (duh!) and it was 695.00. Yes. Almost 700 bucks for 9 archanai thattu saamaan. Apart from the usual stuff in such thattus, let me list out the special items for V.Kovil:
1. a piece of jaggery each, for the 3 of us. hardly 10gms i think.
2. 2 pieces of red cloth. quality of the material? u know the blue cloth we use for car cleaning. exact same material, just the color was different.
3. 3 small garlands. no fancy flowers in them. just regular white and green garland.
4. 3 sets of salt and pepper packets. barely a handful in each.
5. 5 neiy villaku. each costs 5 rupees in Besant Nagar temple.
So these f*ers were obviously trying to steal us. We might as well have had our car stopped on the way by highway robbers and still spent less!
Since we didn't have that much cash on hand, and since these vultures started crowding around us, our survival instincts got the better of us. We started arguing with the buggers.
There was nothing special in the arguments actually. I did start off disputing some of the items he had listed. Those were the things he hadn't supplied. My mother was obviously able to question the rates of the garlands et al. There was lot of back and forth talk and those guys actually said that they had missed out to include some other items and if they add those, it would come to 750 rupees.
The guys on the opposite side were mainly 3 in number. The first guy who lead us into the temple and the other guy who filled in for him inside. The third guy had come in only for settlement.
In the whole fight that was taking place, my mother dealt what I consider to be the master stroke. She went on questioning why this 3rd guy was there in the whole discussion. She demanded that he vacate the place and that she would talk only to the 2 guys we had interacted with.
Even if I had argued with those guys in full blast, I wouldn't have had the presence of mind to reduce the strength of the opponent. That move really helped us. We now had to deal with only 2 guys and obviously it strengthened us.
They tried an emotional blackmail that they didn't want even one paisa and we retorted that we would rather put the whole 700 bucks in the hundial than give it to them. But we also told them very clearly that we were willing to settle for Rs.400 only and that too only because we made the mistake of not asking them for the price up-front.
That's all the cash we had loosely on hand. My father was carrying some 2K in a big wallet. But in all our visible money holders, we barely had Rs.400. We gave it to them making it very clear that we really didn't have the cash.
My mother's argument and the fact that we didn't have visible cash on us, kinda helped and the lepers went away with the money.
We then set off to Hotel Sadhabishekam for breakfast. Surprisingly, their kitchen closes by 9.30 AM for breakfast and they reopen only around 11.30 for lunch. It was 9.40 when we reached there and so we missed out on what is considered to be good food in that neighborhood.
We couldn't find any other good restaurant in that area and headed back to our Hotel in Sirkazhi. A few 100 metres before our hotel, we saw a decent looking joint named Vasantha Bhavan and ate there. The stuff was really good.
After that, we returned to the Hotel and there it was pack-up time.
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