Day 39 - The Stars of Cricket

My God!!! I love Star Cricket…. One good thing about being in Noida is that I can enjoy my evening watching Star Cricket in an AC guest house (bill paid by the company). One bad thing is that I will have to try hard to make people in Noida understand that 1) I am speaking in Hindi & 2) Make them understand whatever I want to tell in Hindi.

Anyways, after a long time I had the opportunity to watch TV daily evening. It is good to see that cricket has shifted back from the boring Set Max to Star Cricket. With Harsha, Sunny and Ravi, things get a lot more interesting.

Watched some excellent moments in the third test match.

Sourav Ganguly lifting Sachin Tendulkar after he got Pieterson out on his first ball. Camarderie back?? Anwyays, I love Sachin’s leg spinners. The slip catches, the LBWs off his googlies and the catches he takes off his own bowling…He does everything with style. One of the few players who still reminds us that cricket is an intelligent game and not a power game…

Without a doubt, the entire Indian team’s joy was evident when Kumble hit his hundred. Watching Sourav jump(literally) as if he had got a hundred!!! And everyone in the dressing room behaving as if he himself has achieved something great – No words to describe that moment. Rahul finally said “We were more nervous than Anil during his 90s”. After Sourav's exit as captain I never could accept Rahul as the captain even though he is my all time favorite sportsman. But now I am seeing my hero as a role model again.

The “Chak De…. Chak De India” package they show at the end of the game. Whoever makes that, Kudo to you!! It is a very good compilation.

Most importantly the commentary team - Professional & Excellent.

A sample…

Towards the end of the 3rd day, Chris Tremlett was batting with Monty Panesar - the last wicket for england. Tremlett had scored zeroes in both innings of the first test, his debut test. Now, he started scoring a few runs. So the other commentator said “He has started playing well, Chris Tremlett. He has become better now”. Harsha quipped - “I guess he can only get better after that performance”.

I adore you Harsha…Without you, cricket for the last 10 years would have been a lot less interesting…

Day 38 - The Intelligent Buyer

The top class discounts were on offer!!!

Place: Lifestyle - Atta Market - Sector 18 - Noida
Time: 1 p.m

If you are the guy who hates Operations as a subject do not read this. If you are the guy who spends an hour and having fun calculating which Postpaid plan to choose based on your past bills' inputs; Not because you would gain Rs. 10 out of the exercise, but because you feel happy that "I did it" when your bill gets reduced by Rs. 10....... go ahead and read this blog…

I am telling you these guys will definitely succeed!!! Because they have fun at work and success is just an ancillary output which they get when they have fun. - Leo da Mirci

Yes... The top class discounts were on offer!!!

Place: Place: Lifestyle - Atta Market - Sector 18 - Noida
Time: Time to execute "Operation Intelligent Buy"

Seeing the discounts I decided to go shopping and "Operation Intelligent Buy” started at Noida. I was so sure that I should never buy anything out of temptation. Have learnt somewhere that most of the retail chains succeed because people are tempted to buy after looking at the products. So I made some intelligent decisions.

1) Check out all possible stores before getting the items. The same item might be available at a better price in a different store.
2) Don’t yield to temptations.

Operation Started

Target 1 Globus: Disliked all items
Target 2 Lifestyle: Disliked all items

Target 3 Pantaloons:

Good. Right Place. Shirts were available at the following denominations 500,600,700,800,900. Buy 2 Get 2 free. You can pick up 4 shirts and the 2 costliest ones will be charged. I got 4 shirts which were priced 900, 800, 500 and 500. So I will have to pay for 2 shirts only (worth Rs. 1700) and get the other 2 shirts free (worth Rs. 1000 free) Pay only 1700 for 2700!!! Good deal. But that is not the end... Temptation starts here.

By getting 4 more of the similar denominations I would have the following options
900, 900, 800, 800, 500, 500, 500, 500. Clubbing the first 4 and the last 4 together you will have to pay for only 900+ 900 & 500 +500. So that is Rs. 2800 and you would get shirts worth Rs.5400!!!

For the first 4 shirts I would pay 1700 and get shirts worth 2700 at an average of Rs. 425 per shirts!! If I get 8 shirts, I would pay 2800 and get shirts worth 5400 at an average of Rs. 350 per shirt!!

Basically the additional 1100 Rs is worth 2700 Rs!! Yielded to temptation…. Finally.

Ok. Got the 8 shirts for Rs. 2800 and a few trousers of Indigo Nation at Pantaloons (for Rs. 1500 after a whopping 40% discount on trousers). The total cost was Rs. 4300 including the trousers.

Operation Error 1:

Paid the bill by cash. And then found that if I had used my recently got SBI credit I would have got a 10% cash back!!!

Operation Error 2:

Then the lady at the counter called me back and gave me a Pantaloon Green Card and a gift voucher worth Rs. 150 since my purchase was more than Rs. 2500. But error bhagwan strikes again. Had I split the bill as 2800 and 1500 and got a green card using the first bill of Rs. 2800, I could have immediately used the gift voucher for Rs. 150 with the other bill of Rs.1500 and would have got a green card holder discount of 7.5% on the bill!!! How much did I lose there??... Hmm...Let me calculate..

Operation Error 3:

Came downstairs. Only to find that Indigo Nation’s showroom had a flat 50% off on the same trousers I had got in Pantaloons!!! So that is a loss of Rs... hmm.. Let me calculate..

So when would I become that intelligent buyer!!! My God…