All the things said
December 15, 2010 7:25 am“I want to own a shoe-box, I can earn more then”
September 10, 2010 5:30 pmI was meeting my friend Deepak Rathee after a really long time. Rathee Boy (as we lovingly call him) was in Pune (let me tell you Pune is indeed the Queen of Deccan during the Monsoons) and I was just done for the day from work. So, we decided to play “catch-up”.
We met up at SGS Mall at Camp at around 2 pm, shared a King-Size-Pizza-Meal-for-2, got chatty. It was then followed by cold coffee and anar juice. We hit the game machines for a series of Air Hockey and Slam-Dunk basketball games [Rathee Boy beat me in both the series 
]. Next we were tortured by Radio City’s – Meet the Stars of “Life Express” - Ms. Rituparna Sengupta event on the mall floor (I had seen her only in movies and in person, she ain’t that tall and charming) and finally we decided to call it an evening at around 8. It was plain fun.
We were outside the mall to hire auto-rickshaws back to our respective destinations when I got a call. Rathee Boy waited for me to finish so that we could say good-byes in a more relaxed manner (signs of us being sentimental fools). While on call, a shabby looking boy – short cluttered hair, dirty brown skin, soiled clothes and a plastic sack originally meant for cement hauled over his back, approached Rathee Boy. I was a little away so I couldn’t make out what was being said between Rathee and the boy. After I ended my call, I approached the two and it is then I heard a clear, distinguished and fluent English voice say - ”I want to own a shoe-box, I can earn more then”. I was a bit surprised. It’s not that I haven’t heard boys of his age (which must be around 10) speak clearly in English, but the conviction his voice carried was unmistakable. I joined in the conversation. Me and Rathee started interrogating the boy.
“Do you go to School?”
“Yes I go to an English medium school. I am in 4th standard.”
“What do you do?”
“I polish shoes. I pay for my School Fees and take care of my family. I am doing shoe-polish to earn. Sir, can I polish your shoes. I don’t have a shoe-box, I carry my things in this bag. I don’t look like I polish shoes without shoe-box. I need money to buy the shoe box. The shoe-box cost me 350 rupees”
His replies were crisp with a distinguished Indian English accent. Apart grammatical mistakes here and there the speech was fluid. It didn’t look like it was rehearsed. We exchanged glances. And like all chaddi-buddies we knew what we wanted to next. We continued.
“Where do you get the Shoe box?”
“Five minutes walk from here. I take you there. There is a man who sells shoe-boxes for 350 rupees”
“Let’s see the man. Take us there”. And we instinctively started following the boy.
“Where are you from?”
“I am from Rajasthan, but I live in Hadapsar”
“Do you come from Hadapsar everyday?”
“Yes, I go to School from 7 to 12 and take a bus to here at 2. I take a bus back at 9. I am doing shoe-polish to earn. I don’t have a shoe-box, I carry my things in this bag. I don’t look like I polish shoes without shoe-box”
“Who is at home?”
“My mother and little sister. We come from Rajasthan. Near BITS Pilani. Sir, where you from?”
“I am from Delhi. What does your mother do?”
“My mother sells balloons.”
“Your sister?”
“She is small” (adds with hand gestures)
“You don’t go to Govt. school?”
“In Govt. school they don’t teach English. So I go to English medium School in Hadapsar. 2000 rupees a year”
We have reached a footpath pavement outside PNB ATM on MG Road. There is no sign of a shoe-box seller. Only a man leaning against the wall and counting a small bunch of 100-50-10 rupee notes. The boy asks the man – “Woh Mochi Kahan gaya?”. The man says – “Aadhaa ghanta pehle bus pakad ke chala gaya”
The boy looks slightly dejected. He says – “Sir, next time”.
“There will be no next time, we are here only for the day. Are you sure that this man sells the shoe-boxes? Is there no one other who sells?”
“Sir, I know only this man. If you know any one else, I will be glad. it is upto you to trust me. If you know a carpenter, then you can pay the carpenter and I will take the box from him later ”
We look at each other. We look at the boy. He is fearless and forthright. I look closely at his face now. The eye lids don’t seem batter much. He has big black eyes (he has possibly lined them with surma/kajal) and he is making full eye contact with me.
Are we getting scammed? If we are, he is a real pro! The guy leaning there and counting notes is looking more suspicious than ever.
“If we give you the money what will you do?”
“I will buy the shoe-box from him tomorrow”
“And where will you sit?”
“I will sit next to another shoe-polisher on that side of the road. Near Marz-o-Rin” (I recall that is true. Another fluent English speaking cobbler sits where he was pointing to. But again, English speaking shabby cobbler, its compounding my suspicions)
We finally take a judgement call. Lets take the risk. We would have poured the same amount and more into booze otherwise. Me and Rathee then squabble over who pays. I say we split, he says he pays all. Finally, Rathee Boy ends up giving the amount.
“Thank you very much sir, I will polish your shoes for free always, you come”
“Never do it for free! Even for me. Never do it for free” (advice from a struggling entrepreneur 
) “And don’t sit near the other cobbler, sit further down the street. Make your own territory. He also speaks English”
“Thank you very much sir. I will sit near Bombay Stores”
The man counting the notes is finished and asks us “Kuch problem hai?”. We say “Nahi kuch nahi, kuch problem nahi hai”
And then both of us leave the boy and his pavement. Rathee catches his ride and I, mine.
On the way back, I yearn – I want to go back to MG Road and check if we have been scammed. If there is a 4th standard boy sitting with a shoe-box and polishing away to glory, or is he still prowling around and scamming. Former is hardwork, latter is smartwork; and whatever he has chosen, I don’t opine either of them to be inferior in scale, scope and success.
Launching of Intinno Naarad
September 6, 2008 2:06 pm
And this is another of my stupid artwork which we converted to a poster for the launch of Intinno Naarad. The center piece in the poster is by me and the rest is done by Nitin Jain and Ankit Jain. And ofcourse, to ideate there was Jaggu (Jagan Mohan), Arpit and Mayank.
And finally the poster looks like-
And finally when patched in the poster, it looks like-
Weaving dreams, Painting pictures
June 13, 2008 2:44 amAs I begin to get into my web designing mode with Mayank, this is my first independent, useless creation in Photoshop CS2.
This is something I can use as Icon
Intinno Technologies begins Hiring
June 7, 2008 4:28 amDesign by me and Mayank with creative inputs from Arpit.
One good deed a day -1
June 1, 2008 11:27 amStarting Afresh!
April 12, 2008 3:38 amsculptures et al..
June 19, 2006 3:06 pm
this is the north side of the Illini Union.. u can see some sculptures there… lets get a closer look
‘
ohhh… I didn’t know that Khajuraho had influence all over the world (smirk)
… and what are these… hmmm new poses of Aasanas.. watever… 
btw… did someone say “sculpture” in Hindi/Sanskrit… I sure LOVE “sculpture” 
a hot and sunny day….
3:01 pm
chicks at the Quad…
(for the information of XXXXXX the XXXXXXX didn’t ‘do’ it… by which he means that he didnt take the pic… he just put it up on the blog for fun) chuckle
