I answered the door.
He looked like a schoolboy, his name was Govind.
Govind sold encyclopedias.
80% discount, only today.
1000Rs you get three books.
He quickly flipped the hundreds of colorful pages.
Captivating infographics flashed before me.
Magnificent creatures, planets, and mountains.
The kid inside me was happy.
But the Adult said a big no.
I had two arguments.
First, in the age of the internet who reads this?
To that, Govind just smiled and shook his head.
Maybe he was trained not to indulge in such arguments.
Then I bluntly said I don’t have kids.
To that, Govind said, you can just gift it to someone.
I asked, how many you have sold today.
He said four, told me the name of some person in my neighborhood whom I didn’t know.
I asked more questions, where do you live Govind?
Karwar, Goa Karnataka border.
What have you studied?
Diploma in advertising from Mangalore, South India.
There was more discussion around the books as I tried to bargain.
I said, the cost of printing this is less than Rs 300, you make a 70% margin on a discount of 80%.
To that, he said, only if they print millions of copies, Sir
I bought the books, switched off the rational mind.
I wanted to help Govind.
And then for an hour or so, flipped the colorful pages.
Reading about dinosaurs and whales.
Thoughts?