Friday, March 24, 2006

COMING SOON IN YOUR CARD HOLDER


My New Card
Finally my creative instincts have come alive after a long time.
The last time, I had my visiting card done was in the year 2000.
This year, with an intention to bring in more creativity, I have
myself designed this card in my office.
Thanks to millions of inspirations.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

COLOUR OF MONEY

Money is addictive. Money is decisive and money is dangerous. I am not saying it out of nowhere. My personal experience with money handling, made me learn a lesson. I learnt that money disregarding the value should never be taken for granted. I would not even have written about this incident, had I not been personally involved with the incident. It happened and I lived to tell the tale.

On Sunday March 19, 2006 I visited one shop in the suburbs to purchase a ceiling fan and a pair of exhaust fans. The total amount was declared to be Rs. 3350 by the shop owner. I ended up calculating Rs. 2350 disregarding what he was saying. Still, I ended up paying Rs. 3350. Late evening, when I sat down to tally the entire days expenditure, did I realise that I was running short of an exact Rs. 1000 from my transactions. From the time, the renovation work at my home begun, my friends and others advised me to keep an eagle’s eye on my cash transactions. This is the first time I was left miffed. Quite unluckily the bills of the exhaust fans were missing which were not handed over by the dealer. The next day being a Monday, the shop remained closed and I was not able to discuss the issue.

Then arrived Tuesday March 21, 2006. From morning I was thinking deep. Also feeling a little let down by the fact that my Mom’s hard earned money was at stake. It was not the question of Rs. 1000. It was the question of being careless or say hassled in a situation less acquainted with. When you are sandwiched between loads of expenditures, you feel the pinch of every penny spent day to day. After having reached my under renovation home and having cleaned all the unnecessary things, I was at the shop. I chose to directly speak to the dealer himself. I chose to maintain my calm. I didn’t intend to get into a blame game fearing that I may lose on my money following a heated debate. I started with reminding him of the episodes that followed one after the other on that fateful day of an erratic transaction.

I explained to him the sequence:

I asked for a 56 inch ceiling fan and then I asked him to show me a pair of mini exhaust fans.

Ceiling fan was priced at Rs. 1250 while the pair of exhaust fans rounded up to around Rs. 1100 (Rs. 550 each).

I asked for a calculator but the dealer himself couldn’t provide me with one.

I calculated the amount on the calculator in my mobile phone.

Though I calculated the grand total to be Rs. 2350, he made me pay Rs. 3350.

While he was preparing the bill there was another person keeping him busy in his conversations.

Luckily the last sequence reminded him of having struck a conversation with his astrologer who it seems comes visiting his shop, every Sunday.

Being a staunch Sindhi entrepreneur, I should have not taken the chance of demanding my money back. But, I knew I stood by what had happened. He shook his head in disgrace. Also apologised and within seconds returned me my Rs. 1000 in cash.

Though the entire incident involved 30 minutes of rigorous conversation without a break, I ended up on a positive note. He said that he liked the confidence with which I spoke about my loss of having paid up Rs. 1000 extra.

Yes! I was confident. Because, I knew, I was not wrong.

The only good thing about this entire incident was, it reinstated my faith in God and the power to think positive. Besides being a major booster of confidence, the incident made me learn a lesson. And that lesson is “Think Positive because Nothing is Impossible”.