We are sold out!!!

It was Mandi time at NITIE.. Mandi the event where we,the students transform into smart marketing fellows for 1 day selling goods of an NGO on streets of mumbai.From the begining I knew I would enjoy this stuff for one , I had done something like this before and It was conducted out of the classroom.Had this been inside the classroom, my peculiar "be-wajah" antics would have made sure my class enjoyed this more than I did.
Seniors had always been telling us Mandi will be a day u will remember,just go out there and enjoy.Simple commonsense told me that so many people cant be wrong, every one was saying hte same thing with conviction so I had to believe them.A slow start to the day did not hamper my positivity towards the event.Few things were straight take-aways for me from the morning at NITIE lawns - I was amazed to see some of the cutest faces present their,Amol Mazumdar's advice to play some sport and the simple fact that my director had a wise head on his shoulders which was full of grey hair.

Scene 1 - Khar Road Market, Its Raining cats and dogs,A boy aged between 20-25 ,wearing specs,is standing still by roadside and getting drenched

"Go for it,Go for it" - soliloquy was on,my heart was pumping blood in my body at the rate of nots,gathering all my courage I asked her.. "is there any market nearby aunty"
shit shit shit.. the grammer got badly screwed up .The arrangement of words in my head was something like "please buy the toys m carrying in my bag...pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" waht came out of my mouth was totally different.But I managed to get things in order and in the second attempt I was successful.Did manage to speak up my mind in front of her.Even tough she politelly refused, but it was the ice breaker.

Scene 2 - Two young guys are standing outside an corp bank ATM, one guy is the same from last scene, the other is his business partner.It continues to rain

hap-hazardly running all around searching for my friends ,trying to get the t -shirt of the right size for my first potential client. and boyyy it was the wrong design-the design she did not like.I called another friend of mine to ask if he had the right desgin with the right size but alas Be-wajah's law applied - "in times of crunch,his best friends will not return his calls".Dejected, I told my "almost first client" - I am sorry mam, he is not returning my call,probably he also doesnt have it.
"Give me the two you have" :D :D :D Deal 1 closed:D

Scene 3 Khar Market Road- The guy with the specs and his business partner are on a selling spree.They are selling stuff to people from kuwait,karachi,holland.It just doesnt matter to them.People of their age and Families with small kids were their target customers.and they werent sparing anyone.In around 3 hrs, they were done with it-Whole stock exhausted.Two Really nice events happend in this course of 3 hours,Their last customer was a daugther - mom duo.Both of them had the same kind of specs,wore the same coloured t-shirt and jeans.The mom politely asked her daugther=do you want this toy" and the 6 year old girl gave the most radiant,ravishing,refined and replendent nods of head. We Were Sold Out!!!


Scene 4 - An hour prior to the business duo got sold out

"yaar tumhara dhandha toh mast chal raha hai" and a big ,really big playful smile

The roadside vendor of combs,a 10 year old boy said to me.I remained silent.but nodded my head in a yes.Ironically I was selling all these goods to people telling them that the advances will be used for educating roadside childern.And there it was,reality hit me hard in face. I felt helpless for a split second but then the boy's charm took over.He was apparently having fun and enjoying all the drama being played out in front of his eyes- "A couple of boys, say excuse me to young people shopping,politely tell their names and say a few scentences in english.Then they show them a few puzzles and toys and return change to by now helpless feeling shopper". I went ahead and showed my 10 year old charming machine what I was selling and then I moved on


Scene 5 - hill road,the business partners are enjoying the tea of their sucess and are in a mood to help their friends clear their stocks.They had alredy Pitched in a couple of times for them and were successful.They saw no reason as to why their stocks cant be cleared. A couple of hours later and the 6 of us had sold toys worth 7k plus among ourselves.

Scene 6- Marine Drive, Pics are being clicked all around.20 plus first year nitie students had a fun day.They are chatting and bantering.The guy with the specs sits facing the sea and is extremely happy to have all of them around.Deep inside, he is wishing all of them luck and asking the sea what is next on cards for him!!!