The King of Kings

In today’s times they say the customer is the king.

For once, they are absolutely right...

The king must but know that he is a king and not an all pleasing politician.

SCENE ONE:



You wake up at 6.45 in the morning. Your mind and body is fresh with a good night’s sleep. You treat yourself with a steaming cup of tea. Your eyes are now searching for today’s news paper. You want to know as to what is happening in and around the world you live. You know that your peace is going to be bombarded with screaming headlines of death and despair but since you are aware and awake you quickly flip through the disappointing news and events taking place in the planet you inhabit.



You reach to the editorial page which interests you the most but not before eyeing the news of your city. Interspersed around the news you find lots of small and big advertisements. You give them a customary look and if an object of desire or something holds your attention, you read the information therein.



Internally you thank God that things in and around your own private world are not as bad as the news paper makes out to be. You also thank Him for giving you the freedom of choice to read what you want to read.



SCENE TWO:



You get up and switch on the FM radio to cheer up your mind by listening to some soulful old or new melodies. Just as you tune in you hear someone boasting loud about the success of a certain coaching institution. You search for another frequency and hear a devotional rendition playing on. You stop and listen to the mellifluous voice praising the lord’s kindness. You are lost in the music when suddenly you are brought back in the real world by a lady voice screaming at her husband to fulfill his duties by signing on the dotted lines of an insurance policy.



You run for your i-phone so that you can listen to your favorite melodies as you shave but can’t put the earplugs in for want of shaving convenience. You put the cell on speaker mode but the shrillness of the sound irritates you and so you give up the whole idea and shave and cleanse yourself in silence.



SCENE THREE:



Its workout time and you smile to yourself for choosing Yoga to heal your mind, body and soul. You pat yourself for your intelligent choice because it avoids the rigors of going to a gym. You are not even needed to go through the troubles of putting on some rhythm on your music system to get your aerobics rhythmic.



You take a deep breath with a sigh of relief.



SCENE FOUR:



You have taken your shower and are getting ready to reach your workplace on time when the doorbell rings. You are about to ask your wife to answer the door but then you see her busy in preparing your breakfast and in performing other household chores and so you open the door yourself to find a young guy smartly dressed up. He tries to sell you something under the pretext of some training that he is undergoing to complete his degree. You politely ask him to leave protesting the infringement of your privacy and time.



He leaves but you do feel guilty about shooing him away. You curse the companies who hire poor guys to do such an arduous and thankless job. You blame the greedy and selfish minds who adopt such ludicrous methods to extract sales. You wish that there is no such need for students and colleges to experiment with peoples notions in the name of training.



Engrossed in all such thoughts you never know that you have forgot to enjoy and appreciate the breakfast so lovingly prepared by your wife.



SCENE FIVE:



On the way to your workplace you see poor kids trying to sell some or the other thing to the travelers. You see these on every traffic signal and you also wonder as to how many people actually do make a purchase from them to keep them going with the same routine job - every day of the week.



You are busy doing something at your workplace when suddenly the door opens and in comes a salesman with a plastic smile on his face. Without giving you a chance to speak he bids you good morning, shakes your hand forcefully and informs you about a fancy new stain-cleaning liquid for your office. All this happens in such quick time that you have no time to think whether this swiftness is natural or a gimmick to seek your attention.



Somehow you are able to keep your cool and in that cultivated coolness you politely say that you are not interested. The salesman does not take your no for an answer and want to demonstrate the product’s effectiveness to you. He starts to open his bag when you again stop him from employing his selling skills on you – this time a little sternly. He pretends as if he has not heard you and continues to find something in his bag.



You now loose your patience and raise your voice a little. It is now his turn to be shell-shocked to see you slowly turning furious. You take the advantage of the momentary pause in his activities and tell him to convey his company that if they want to sell their product they better make it available in the grocery store. If people get genuinely interested in the product they will surely purchase it but troubling people at their workplace is no way to market the product. You also tell him that it is your establishment that he has entered into. He was allowed entry because the doormen must have thought of him as a customer of the services you establishment provided. You also inform the salesman that it took lots of years and lakhs of rupees to open a shop like this. That this shop is established to sell and if the salesman need buy a product he is welcome or else he may as well leave.



The salesman walks out almost immediately on hearing your lengthy speech on marketing ethics but you do not feel happy inside. You could watch his shoulders drop and even his plastic smile snatched away from his face.



You wonder whether it is the poverty that makes people do such jobs or is it the lack of original thought which keeps them where they are…



SCENE SIX:



You are browsing the internet and are in search of answers to the queries that circulate in your heart every now and then. There are a plethora of pop-ups which try to distract you from your search but you have fire walled such advances. Then there are viruses which attack you from all sides and that also at times when you want them least. Thanks again to the effective anti-virus that you installed in your computer which allows you to browse through.



SCENE SEVEN:



Its Friday night and you are desperate to catch up with Sa Re Ga Ma little champs. You switch on the television and are all set to enjoy the mesmerizing talent on the show when you receive a call on your cell from an unknown number. You pick up the call thinking it could be from someone who has changed his/her number in spite of number portability being available.



The sweet but business like mechanical voice at the other end informs you that she wants you to insure your life and she has some exciting plans specially designed looking at your needs. She lures you into at least committing a meeting sometime to convince you. You don’t want to be rude but still say no to her very firmly. You could see her making faces at you even when you don’t own a mobile with 3G services.



You smile and are back to enjoying Salman Ali’s rendition of ‘Tashan mein, Tashan mein….’



The anchor seeks a chhotu sa time out but before the channel barrages you with advertisements you grab your remote control and put on MTv coke. Oops….wrong timing…because here too they are showing advertisement but this time the Levi’s advertisement catches your attention and you stop and watch it.



On Sunday, when you are leisurely having a stroll in the mall you end up buying a Reliance Trendz pair of jeans though.



Man is bad case....isnt it?