Ringa Ringa Road us, The Road is full of pot holes

For the past couple of days I have been travelling to Electronic city from Cambridge layout because of official work and forced to take the Outer Ring Road (ORR) to get to the Hosur road instead of the Koramangala Inner Ring Road (IRR) route. The reason for this is obvious... In case it is not so, I shall elaborate more on this in another post! On the drive along the ORR I began to notice the humungous constructions on this stretch of road- A Multiplex, Family restaurants, A Club, Apartment blocks, The "IT-corridor", Shops etc. I still can't believe that this was the same stretch of road that used to be totally barren until about 3-4 years back the only life that existed was some shabbily constructed, ill-equipped dhabas and some small shops catering to the truck drivers passing through. True, this route is faster than the conventional route but the fact is that if the same pace of development continues for even about 2 years the outer ring road will become just another jam-packed, slow moving, heavily polluted, pot-hole filled, traffic signal ridden city road. Already some segments of this road are displaying symptoms of things to come- the stretch that cuts outside Banaswadi and Austin town in particular. This also made me recall reading a newspaper article about a proposed Peripheral Ring Road (PRR). This new ring road will connect far, flung areas of Bangalore to form a ring and will be far large than the current outer ring road. Judging the way the IRR has been reduced from a fast connection between central Bangalore and Koramangala because of large scale developments- legal and illegal to a dangerous drive at own risk road and the slowing down of the ORR which is currently underway it is not unfair to say that the proposed PRR also will suffer the same fate. The question now before us is: Where do we draw the line... er... Ring... The reason de existence for the Ring Roads themselves are being threatened because of high density developments being sanctioned instead of low and medium density that the ring roads can take... the actual purpose was of these roads was to decongest the main city from heavy commercial vehicle (HCV) traffic and promote low density, well spread developments on the side. We are repeating the same mistakes every single time and that to the scale of the mistakes keep on increasing every time! Unless we address the issues of accountability for developments taking place i.e. basically either plan for the kind of developments beforehand high density, medium density or low density and then follow it meticulously or do we allow large scale deviations and then regularise them and then keep on creating loops and further loops to the problem and then name them outer ring roads?

Middle men or meddle men?

It's now nearly a year since I purchased my laptop and since then the scene has completely changed and now one can buy a lighter centrino laptop for a lesser sum than what I had paid for a heavy celeron piece. So in the spirit of keeping up with the times and in the hope of buying a lighter laptop I decided to venture out into the world of buy-back offers and which better place to start than the Acer showroom at cunnigham road which I had thought would give me a fair deal as the current one is the same brand.

Venturing there I met a uninterested salesman who refused to get up from his cushy chair and insisted on remote controlling me around the showroom giving me a lowdown on the various demo pieces from the very comfort of his chair. No probs I thought, better than having a salesman with B.O. problems breathing down your neck threatening me with dire consequences if I did not purchase something. He ultimately made me make a entry in the visitors register and informed me that he would get in touch with me soon as he has a ready client on the look out for a second hand laptop. Days turned into weeks and weeks to months and two months later, I receive a call from him telling me that he has a serious buyer who would be willing to pick up the laptop with on the spot cash and that he was waiting for me at the showroom.

So thinking that the moment for changing my workhorse has finally come with a heavy heart and concerns about a lighter wallet rushed to the showroom. On reaching there I am greeted by a call which I realise is from the salesman at the showroom asking me to hurry and that the prospective client is at getting impatient, not realising that I am at the door of the showroom right in clear view from his cushy chair!

Getting in he greets me with a sly grin and asks his assistant to get me a chair and to wait as the prospective buyer has just gone out for 5 mins. He then engaged me in a conversation about my laptop configuration and asked permission to inspect it. No probs.. check it out I told him and then someone pops out of the showroom woodwork and joins him in the "inspection" which actually turned out to be a check to see if there are any games installed on the laptop that they can play to pass time until the buyer shows up! After waiting for about 15 mins., two people with broad grins across their face show up and upon entering the air-conditioned showroom let out loud burps - signs of a good, heavy lunch and strike a conversation with the woodwork man- The prospective buyer and his friend. They then seemed to be having a argument and the "argument" then is shifted to the Toshiba showroom in the basement and only when they came back did I realise that they were bargaining and not arguing! How stupid of me to have thought otherwise!

For about 20-25 mins., they seem to be negotiating the purchase of my laptop and occasionally "inspecting" my laptop completely oblivious and ignorant of the fact that the laptop was mine and without even bothering to either talk to me or asking me what my price expectation was. I hear them talking about 15,000, 25,000, 30,000 and also 37,000. Finally they agree for Rs.30,000 without even bothering to ask me if I was fine with the rate! Then all of a sudden the salesman in the cushy chair whispers in my ear that I will be getting a net princely sum of Rs. 22,000 after deducting the "charges"! Quite perplexed, I asked him what these "charges" were, He coolly replies that the two people who were supposed to be the prospective buyer and his friend were actually two computer hardware retailers, the woodwork man was also a retailer and that since he brokered the deal, he deserves a cut of the proceeds! The "prospective buyer" would be paying the cash upfront and then selling it to some buyer.

The deal structure was as follows:

Cushy chair salesman Rs.2,000

Woodwork man Rs. 5,000

Prospective buyer friend Rs. 2,000

"Prospective buyer" Rs. 2,000

End price to buyer: Rs. 33,000 which is roughly 50% of the cost which I had purchased the laptop for. Not a bad deal for him eh?

The cushy guy then proceeds to justify this by telling me that the actual buyer is very price conscious and that we have to be fair to him and give him a good deal!

End result: I decided not to sell my laptop and that I will gift it to someone deserving, will never go back there for any purchase and strongly recommend anyone dealing with them to do so at their own risk.

P.S.:- I am now thinking of buying a second hand laptop as it seems much better to be a buyer than a seller in this segment.