Tis a Material World!

Mon, 23 May 2005 4:50 pm

Well this was one long overdue post. And it is about my laptop. Now before people start wondering as to why I am announcing about my laptop, the intentions are not those. The idea is only to recognize the efforts of each and every one who was involved in this beautiful piece being put together and making sure it reaches my table for me to be able to type this out!

It all started one December night when one of my closest friend Preetesh was visiting India and told me about the amazing deals that Dell offers on its laptops in USA. A passing reference was made to www.edealinfo.com, a site that lists deals on various products and has a page dedicated to Dell.

Once decided that I was going to B School this year, owning a laptop was almost the next natural step. That’s when the above conversation, by now three months old, flashed across my mind. Very next moment I started checking out the deals on a regular basis until I came across a laptop that seemed to be the perfect combination of both my needs and pocket. And now all those who got involved in the saga!

Preetesh (Location: Somewhere in USA) and Heena (Location: Atlanta, USA)

After a lot of laboring I finally managed a handsome discount from Dell and decided to order it. I was just about to make the payment online when boom! I realize they need an American Credit Card. Ok, the Americans are not that dumb! It was urgent. These deals do not come very often and even when they do last only for a couple of hours before being called off. So I called up Preetesh. It was 8 am. The dude was in another city and leaving for an interview in 30 mins. Still he managed to get in touch with Heena and pass on all the required information for it to be ordered, with the discount ofcourse. :)

Sukesh Jiyaji and Aarti (Location: San Jose, CA)

Fine the laptop was ordered and was supposed to be shipped by the 9^th of May to my sister, Aarti’s place in CA. Jiyaji was due to fly down to Japan and then India on the way back and he could have carried it with him. But he was leaving on the 8^th of May!!!! What if Dell works like our Indian companies? No way would they deliver one day in advance! Well, here in India, we only know Customer Delight on paper you see!

But, the piece got delivered 10 days before time. Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! I was so dead sure they had goofed up that I asked my sis to check the piece a million times. Luckily I still haven’t found any goof up.

A close acquaintance (Location: New Delhi)

The laptop was on its way to India from Japan. But there was one problem. The Indian Customs. It was then that this person managed to help me out deputing a person right there at the airport to make sure there is no problem faced by Jiyaji in India.

It all worked out great and the piece reached India! Woh! The toughest part was over. And now getting it to Pune.

Sukesh Kaul (Location: New Delhi), Madhur Mausi (Location: New Delhi), Geetika (Location: New Delhi to Pune)

As luck would have it my cousin Geetika was flying to Pune from New Delhi just a couple of days after his thing arrived here. And I got impatient. Never again would I get such an opportunity to have it transported to Pune, and waiting to get to Delhi myself seemed like eternity.

I called Sukesh. He works in Gurgaon. He most willingly picked up the piece from Gurgaon and dropped it to Karol Bagh from his house in Noida. Anyone who has even a rough idea about the distances in the capital would I am sure realize the pains Sukesh took. I really wonder how many people would actually do that, even for a blood relation. Thanks dost!

From Karol Bagh, Madhur Mausi, took it all the way to the airport to hand it over to Geetika. Geetika was to come from Chandigarh to the airport and a delayed start resulted in her missing her direct flight to Pune.

She took the late night flight to Mumbai and then came to Pune the next morning!

Anyways here is a big thank you to all these people for all the efforts and pains taken by all of you. I still cannot believe the number of people who got involved in this entire episode!

And this is the beauty I have been talking about …

You too wanna buy a Dell. Check out EDealInfo.com for their deals.

-S