Amaan and Ashwini are very close friends of ours. In fact Amaan and I have been at biz school together. Now, Amaan, I must add, happens to be case study himself, but that will be another post.
In fact for quite years now, the four of us have been going out for movies and dinner together. Its fun to hang around with these guys. They are very much like us in most respects. Anyways, since there is so much comfort between us, we generally have a laugh riot most of the times.
I admire Amaan for one thing. He has this unique knack of bargaining at high value items – cars, TVs, etc. Me on the other hand am a complete sucker at these places. I once thought that I should buy a car. I requested Amaan to come with me for this for moral support. I am amazed at the complete nonchalance with which he asks for a discount of 60 grand and of course free central locking, body coloured bumpers and God knows what all. The better part of all this is that he gets his way! He loves it and that’s good. When I bought a 29” TV, he was disappointed that I did not ask him to come along.
Ashwini on the other hand is one person who looks like she could calm a volcano. She is one of those regal looking women – Diane Keaton types. She probably may not need to bargain. And since I have never seen her do that, the topic rests. But by their own admission, he and Ashwini cannot bargain at other places like book stores, apparel shops, furniture showrooms, bhajiwalas, and all the low value places. Apparently they feel awkward doing that!!!!
But Megs is the Queen in this segment. All the guy has to do is to tell her the price and she manages to cut the price down to half – well almost nearly! I remember the time when just before marriage Megs and I went out for a wedding of one of my office colleagues. She was not happy with the contraption that I called chappals. So she dragged me to Andheri station for a purchase of good old Kolhapuris. I chose one and asked for the price. “220” came the reply. As I dug into my pocket, Megs gave me a look that made me freeze in terror. She counter quoted “100”. I was shocked. And flew out of the tattered floaters I was wearing. I mean how can she say something like this and subject us to public humiliation? Won’t the guy think we are paupers? But the shocks did not end there…he agreed for 110 and I almost fainted. Did this really happen? And I mentally counted the crores I had lost by not learning this art of bargaining.
Not that I haven’t tried that. I tried using Amaan’s formula during my car purchase. Couldnt even get free floor mats, leave alone a car stereo! I guess I still have a long way to go, I think I will have to start small before jumping on to bigger ticket items!
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