Painter Man

Ever since I read the story of Tom Sawyer painting a fence, in my primary school days, I have had this desire to take up a paint brush and color some wall or table to something of that sort.

After a couple of decades, I finally got the opportunity to fulfill this wish of mine. There are 2 cane chairs (the hanging types) at home which are now around 10 years old. Other than the regular washing and cleaning, they have not had any other special treatment ever since their manufacturer applied some form of varnish on it.

We had tried to get it painted by the folks we had hired for painting the house recently, but somehow they got away without painting these 2 chairs. But they did leave behind a container of paint they used on the doors upstairs. My mother tried goading me into painting it last week, but I promised to take it up this weekend. And as usual, I stuck to my promise and went out with paint, brush and other paraphernalia to start the painting of these 2 chairs.

With good help from my mother, I went about my task. I didn't have too many mishaps during the painting and things went peacefully. By the time I was done with the first coat on both the chairs, 3 hours had gone by! I prefer to think that this duration is on par for an amateur painter and that too for one doing it for the first time.

This is how the chairs look now:

Sales tax evasion prevented

My dear countrymen, bring out the nomination forms for the Good Citizen award. You have one in your midst and he is not shying away from receiving the acknowledgement for his good deeds.

You see, this guy and his parents went to a furniture store today, to buy a Dining Table. After identifying one that everyone in that family liked, the salesman got this family to the manager's desk to close out the deal.

The estimate was provided as Rs.20,600. Our hero tried his best at negotiating a good deal. The manager gave the usual sales pitch about the quality of his products. How he doesn't hike up prices and then offer a discount. etc. etc.

While all that may very well be true, our nominee wanted some discount. The manager thought for sometime. Did some fundoo calculations. And came out with an offer. He said that he could close the deal for Rs.20,085, but there were certain terms and conditions.

First, 20% of this amount (around 4K) would have to be given as cash. The balance 16K, could be paid using a credit card. Also, the shop would give a bill only for the 16K that was swiped and not for the full amount of 20K.

Our friend thought about it and understood where the store manager was headed toward. And to make things clear, the manager himself categorically said that to accommodate the customer's request, he would have to avoid getting taxed at some level.

This is where any average person would have taken the bait for saving Rs.500 and accepted the offer. And this is where our friend differs from the average citizen. He decided on the spot that he couldn't let the Government lose out on sales tax for 4K. He told the manager that he didn't want that option and in stead requested him to make the bill as Rs.20,500.

Don't you think our hero our hero deserves at least a round of applause for the sacrifice that he has made?

And in case you still didn't realise, till this point in this article, I was referring to myself in the third person.