It was a black Nokia E51 executive handset. Undoubtedly a good phone, a special phone; in some respects, I prized it as a kind of family heritage, because my father had given it to me. Of course, electronic goods can hardly be passed down from generation to generation, because they become obsolete almost instantly after that are introduced. So call it lack of rationality if you will, but this PARTICULAR phone was my phone, and I really wanted to look after it.
Of course, I hadn't ever 'looked after' a very many items before in my life, and this phone was no exception. It was literally falling apart. It needed a new battery, a new display, a new keypad, and a new cover.
It was no small joy, therefore, to realize that I could easily procure inexpensive spare parts from the market and restore my phone to its former glory. With that in mind, I did some homework on prices and finally paid a visit to a phone vendor situated in the thick of Sadar's electronics market this week.
I don't know if it was the way I spoke and dressed, or the silly, expectant look on my face ('Can you fix it?? :'( ), but that dude had me figured out. He asked for 500 bucks to fix the display ('the circuit needs a new IC' - whatever that was) and 900 bucks for a new casing ('You want the original thing, right?'). By my estimates, based on prior experience with mobile vendors, the whole affair shouldn't have cost more than 500 bucks. But then again, 1500 bucks was not that unreasonable a price to restore an artifact to the heyday of its existence, right?
So we reached an agreement on price, and he got started. As I watched in utter vexation, the dude pulled a small chip off a broken handset and soldered it into my phone to fix the display ('The IC is expensive and hard to get' he had told me). It took him barely a minute. Ten minutes later, his assistant brought back the 'original' casing ('it was really hard to find; i had to call in a special favor from this wholesaler i know') and in another thirty seconds it was applied to my phone.
I was horrified. My phone was being taken for a ride. I was being taken for a ride.
The casing didn't feel right. Nothing felt right. I took a trip with the assistant to the 'wholesaler' to check the price. He gave me a similar number. But other vendors in the market didn't. They were quoting one third the price I was being offered.
I immediately had my phone returned to its previous condition and 'over' paid the vendor for the labour work. I used my charm to convince the vendor that he should return the unused phone casing to the shop it was procured from. At first he told me it could not be returned. Then he insisted that I go with him and speak to the guy he bought the cover from. Finally, he insisted that I should pay 200 bucks for the cost of the keypad which had been spoiled when the new casing was applied to my phone. I declined.
Five minutes later, i purchased the same casing for my phone from another shop for 300 bucks. Apparently, my 'charm' had been laid to waste by the fact that someone had made a fool out of me.
I didn't know whether to feel horrified (at how far this dude was willing to go for a thousand bucks), insulted (why me? Of all the people who drop by, he picked me to swindle? :-( ) or pitiful (i might probably have done the same if i were in his position, right?). The reality was that this dude probably stole mobile phones off the street as a side-business, swindled a whole bunch of customers for as much as he could, and came from a background where there was lack of opportunity. Maybe he was just another black sheep.
All things considered, I still wanted to go over to his shop and give him a piece of my mind. Instead I turned back, wondering what turned people into thieves. It's a product of greed, upbringing, inequality and desperation perhaps; my guess is as good as any since I haven't stood in those shoes. But surely, people such as myself also have some blame to shoulder, if at all, for perpetuating the inequality that does exist. Maybe I was turning back from my responsibility by accepting and ignoring this behaviour.
I nearly (well, almost) got taken for a ride, because someone realized how much I valued my phone and how little I knew about it. And here I am blogging about something I value, because I think I belong to a different world.
The reality is that I AM different. And I'm also a fool. :-/
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