Paisa Paisa Piasa

People in my office can be divided into two types. Those who work for money and those who have lots of money. I don’t have much money and I find asking for money from my parents as painful as getting my teeth pulled out.

I was never a bright student because I have an average IQ. Not a genius but also not Taare Zameen Pe. Being a person with average IQ and average scores, I went to a decent college, got a decent job with a decent salary, at least that’s what thought until Monday.

I decided to buy a chair on Monday. Not a simple chair but a chair with pad. The kind of thing that you might have used if you would have spend two years of your life sitting in an air-conditioned hall of a coaching class thinking – What am I doing here? I am never going to crack this exam and there are no hot girls in this class.

I told my colleagues that I wish to buy a chair and they suggested buying it from Bajiroa road. I told my two friends that I can’t go to Bajiroa road because I don’t have a bike and they both said they are willing to take their bike and me to Bajiroa road for shopping.

Now I had a dilemma. To whom I must say no. Both are my friends and colleagues. One works in IT support, another in accounts and I am in Production. We become friends by choice and not due to team building exercises. We all eat lunch together.

I told about my dilemma to both of my friends and they gave me simple solution. Three people can travel on two bikes provided I don’t have any problem. I said thanks to them and added – Let’s go to Bajirao road at 6:30 pm.

At 6:30 pm I called one of my two friends and he told me that we will leave for Bajiroa road at 7:30. We reached Bajiroa road at around 8: 15 pm. We walked to the furniture shops and found only three shops furniture shops were open. I thought the furniturewalas of Pune have gone on a strike but before I could tell it to both of my friends, one of my friends walked into a furniture shop and inquired about the type of chair I wanted.

A boy working in the shop told us none of the three shops had such a chair but we can buy the chair tomorrow because the furniture market remains closed on Monday. I wanted to ask the boy whether he was working on an off day so that he could take a comp-off later but that would have been a stupid question so I asked him how such the chair will cost and he told me Rs 650.

My friends said what a KLPD and I told them we must go to Ishaniya. It is a nice mall. My followers on twitter told me that I can buy every type of chair there. My friends told me it will take us about an hour to reach there and I told them with two bikes and no problem from my side we must go.

Before I tell you tell you about Ishaniya let me tell me you one thing about me. I studied in Gurgaon, the mall capital of India. I think Gurgoan has more malls serving Delhites than the combined number of malls in Bihar, UP and MP. So when I tell you Ishaniya is huge, it means it is really huge.

We reached Ishaniya and the first thing we found was that Ishaniya has a huge amphitheatre. If you are Mumbai Indian fan in Pune then you have to watch Sachin batting in Ishaniya. Watching the God of cricket at Ishaniya will not be only the best cricket experience you will ever have but it will also be the best Rs 150 you will ever spend.

However, that day Royal Challengers Bangalore were playing Delhi Daredevils and we were in hurry because the mall was closing. So we went to Home Town and asked did they have any chair with tabletop. 

According to Home Town it is a chair with pad / tablet and I was directed to the first floor that had the office furniture section.

One thing I will like to say about Home Town is that the staff they have is the best I have ever met in a mall. These guys patiently listen to you and offer suggestions that make sense. Not buy our products because you have made the mistake of walking into our shop types.

I went to the office furniture section and found Home Town only has chairs with half pad. This means chairs with pad on which you can only keep a notepad and not a laptop. The most shocking was the pricing of chairs. All the chairs were pathetic and the cost of the cheapest chair was Rs 1,200. That’s a bad product with a very bad price tag. 

The chairs shown to me were so bad that if they were gift articles then they would have been in the category of goods that you buy from 49/99 shop. The receiver thanks you for coming to the party and recycles the gift because it is useless, of bad quality and given only as a formality.

Since Home Town didn’t have the chair I wanted, we decided to go @Home. While walking through Home Town I realized most of the products had a price tag that ends with 999. It means sofasets are available for 21,999 and furniture for bedroom is priced at 32,999. I also found a bean ban (lazybag in Home Town) for 1,499. The same bean bag is available at Bajiroa road for 800 bucks. Seriously WTF guys. What’s the point in selling exorbitant furniture like Bata slippers. Indians are not stupid. We know 32,999 is 33K and 1,499 is 1,500 and not 1,400 plus some extra money.

The staff at @Home is also good. They told me that they don’t have the chair I am looking for but I can try a chair and table instead. They showed me branded Neelkamal chair for 650 and two tables for 2,000 and 3,200. End of discussion.

On Tuesday I went to Bajiroa road with the same two guys. I looked at the Rs 650 chair and asked the shopkeeper did he have any other type of chair with full pad. The shopkeeper told me he has but it will be expensive. I asked him how expensive and he told me Rs 1,000.

I told him to show me the chair and he showed me an all black color chair. The chair looks awesome and is very comfortable. If this chair had been gift article then you would have brought it for yourself because it is good, inexpensive and most important value for money.

I brought the chair by giving the shopkeeper thousand bucks. The shopkeeper smiled, said thank you and returned me 50 bucks. Damn it. I have been chanting give me value for money for last two days and when I get value for money I forget the cardinal rule of Indian shopping. The shopping experience in India is incomplete if don’t haggle over prices with the shopkeeper.

To sum up

Ishaniya is a big mall with big shops that will offer you an awesome shopping experience if you have a big wallet.