Skip to main content

Cane Chair Story

 

I joined as a medical representative in 1972. I was all of 21 and was looking for a rental accommodation in Guntur. Having lived in own houses in Proddatur till completion of school and later in Bangalore during my college days, I didn't like to rent a room or share living accommodation with anyone else. After several rejections from house owners due to their dislike to lease out accommodation to bachelors, I landed a small independent house. I was to be the first occupant of the brand new place. The drawing room was very small. I purchased 3 single seat cane arm chairs. They costed me Rs.180 totally. That was quite a big amount in those days. They remained with me until 1979 although I changed to 2 other houses. I was moving into a new larger accomodation since I got married in 1979. I planned to buy new furniture. The furniture shop owner agreed to buy back my old cane chairs after deal for new furniture was settled. Next day he came home to take the used chairs after inspection and valuation. I mentally fixed Rs 300 as the reasonable value. After looking at the condition of those chairs, he offered me Rs.450. I gladly accepted the offer as it far exceeded my expectation. While handing the money, he said, "Sir you would have got 600 if you had so demanded." This was his way of deriving extra kick out of his luck at having got the chairs at a low price. But after taking the money from him, I told him " you would have got them for 300 only if you had bargained." This certainly was a knock out punch for him from me.

He went back with a confused look on his face, wondering if he was to be happy because he paid only Rs.450 for chairs worth 600 or go back disappointed because he could have paid only 300 with a hard bargain. 

But I certainly felt as a winner having got 450 where my expectation was only 300. No confusion in my mind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pleasures & Perils of WhatsApp group

Initiating a WhatsApp group and then adding members with a message to a contact “I’ll add you to the group” is easy. But maintaining the group and making it productive has become a challenge. I felt honored when invited by my immediate senior in school to join  a WhatsApp group of Schoolmates in March-April, 2020. The group has a senior Banker, an Aero-Scientist, a Dentist, a senior Public Sector Administrator, a distinguished Poet, 2 medical practitioners, a Chartered Accountant, a horticulture scientist apart from me, a Pharma Sales Person. Interestingly, the group was put together by the daughter of the  Senior Banker. She wanted to present her father with a facility to recall and reminisce school days with his schoolmates. I am ever grateful to her for giving me a wonderful gift of connecting with old friends after decades of leaving the school. This is the latest WhatsApp group of which I became a member. I am also a participant in 2 groups of my relatives and have scores...
1 comment
Read more

Famed Dosa from Proddatur

Proddatur draws it's name and fame through an act of Lord Sri Rama who installed a saikata linga (linga made of sand) to mitigate the Brahma hatya dosham from killing of Ravana. While this mythological connect remained with the town, it is famous for Gold trade. It is considered as Second Mumbai due to the volume of gold business. For over a century, gold trade is predominantly in the hands of a large entrepreneurial Vysya population living here. While the very affluent and well to do vysyas are into gold trade, women in not so rich families supplementing their family income by making leaf plates using leaves of bastard teak (flame-of-the-forest tree or  Butea monosperma) These leaf plates were commonly used those days in Rayalaseema region. The leaves have astringent, depurate, diuretic and aphrodisiac properties, stimulate and promote diuresis. Make shift eateries on the pials (scaffold or  raised platform) on either side of the main entrance of their homes making dosas was ...
1 comment
Read more

Name & what it means to you

"A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language”  said Dale Carnegie who was an American writer and author of many self development books. He explains the importance of a person's name in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People. He explains that a person's name is the sweetest sound they can hear. In other words, people love to hear their own name. My name is Madhva muni and I am named after my maternal grandfather, Sri Madhvachar who while being very orthodox, was a highly successful lawyer of his time. I always felt proud of my name since it also is associated with one among the trinity of great Indian philosopher theologians, Sankara Ramanuja & Madhva, the chief proponent of the Dvaita school of Vedanta. Since the time I can remember, I have been facing a peculiar problem with my uncommon name.  When someone has to write or make a data entry of my name, invariably  made it as MADHAVA MUNI by inserting an A after M...
2 comments
Read more