Of in flight entertainment and my almost expensive jeans....

Jan 14th 2008

Often I keep switching music channels and movies on the in flight entertainment available on these flights, wondering what to see or hear… the choices are generally between the poor and more poor… shere waste of time some of these…

But in the last one month in all my travel from the left most continent of the map to the right most continent and back (whoops that was too much of flying believe me- I would never want to be a flight attendant ever)… I have luckily stumbled on 2 modes types of things that I love watching/listening to…

The first is the British comedy shows available on some of these flights followed by the American comedy… (Brits have a way of being sarcastic you know ) … some of them are funny and some of them are ridiculously funny… giving you a flavour of life in these countries and often exposing you to corporate and general life… Most importantly the entertainment is worth your sleeping time in the flights…

But even more interesting and my favourite source of entertainment (keeping aside chatting with flight attendants : ) is watching these business videos… Guess what – I stumbled over the best of the lot on the BA flight – an evening of Q and A for a university students with Warren Buffet and Bill Gates together… holds no bar, brilliance no bar, humility no bar, genius’ no bar, intellectual odacity no bar, humour no bar and shere great human nature no bar… I think that 1 hour was one of my best spent 1 hour on a flight ever… From the intelligence and common sense of Buffet to the sharp mind of Mr. Gates- from the wit of the greatest investor in the world to the humility of the world’s richest man... I was delighted… Their thoughts, actions and behaviour was just too much and I was floored by the world’s 2 biggest donors ever….

The beauty of it all was their simplicity and their thoughts about running businesses/ investing and also how to be a good human being… and I was seeing 2 of them- to top it all their mutual admiration and camaraderie was striking beyond words… I am so surprised and touched with the fact that both of them are going to donate most of their hard earned wealth to philanthropy without a blink of the eye… and how different though effective their styles of functioning still effective were they… let aside the fact that both of them claim to not understand how the other man does his stuff : )

On a separate note – when I was in Mumbai – it was great hosting 3 of my friends from Wharton…I was in the perfect world… back home with family… and also my friends with me at home… does it get better… alas it had to change.. I am back – all alone in my apartment - : ) – but then what the heck… happy memories and moments to cherish…

So when in Mumbai- I went shopping- and guess what – I tried on a pair of jeans… good fit… one of the famous brands… starts with C… or maybe K… I don’t remember clearly now… may be even made of 2 words… forget it… so I like the jeans and go to pay for it at the counter… The guy asks for Rs 5500/- or $137.5… now in the US it is easily the normal price for high end jeans… but that came as a shocker to me… I have not often been brain frozen … for a moment I was… my mind could not accept what I heard… I was baffled… and asked – ‘I have just bought one pair of jeans right?’… of course… and guess what – I walked off… profusely apologizing to the shop staff and to my friend who might have bbeen embarrassed at my behaviour… but then no way on earth in India was I paying anything like this… i would have never come out of the fact I just went and spent some ridiculous money for something that could have helped millions and millions of individuals to eat meals for even a year maybe…

The fact is that last I remembere- prices were ¼ of this before I left a year back and whatever the economic development and India shining and inflation and real estate/ stock market developments… this was just not acceptable… I have never done this before- walking away from a deal… especially when someone else is with me… coz it is about pride and self respect- honouring your words… but something like this was atrocious and I just instinctly turned around – apologized to everyone and explained my decision… and had to walk away… For the next few minutes I was shocked and wondering how embrrassing it was… but redemption came next moment… my friend walked us into another shop… another famous brand… and guess what my priceline was quite right… not everything in India has gone berserk and thank God for that… I picked up a couple of pairs for the right amount… and came back satisfied …

One interesting thing to note is that if these guys are selling jeans at these prices- I am sure someone is buying all of it… or may be? Well – I leave each one to decide… But I think I made the right decision….