Most of our systems in India operate on tbe British Raj system..that is, we are in positions of some power or advantage, so let us harass the consumer and make things as difficult as possible. And how wonderful in today’s world…it’s not just true when WE have to collect money from them…it is even true when they are SELLING things.

I went to PVR theatres in Forum Mall today, having ascertained from the paper that a certain movie I was interested in (you want details? OK, it is the animation movie Hanuman, the visuals of which have captivated me.) was listed as running for the entire coming week. I asked for tickets to a show on Wednesday (today being Sunday.) I was told that I would have to come back tomorrow. Why? They would only sell tickets up to Tuesday. Why? No answer. I had to check with a friend of mine if Tuesday was OK with her (our agreement was to go to the movie together on Wednesday) and I had to leave the queue and make a phone call to her. She agreed to Tuesday, and I rejoined the queue and asked for tickets on Tuesday. The guy at the counter (the same one!) said calmly, “Tuesday…sold out, Madam.” I then made a noise and asked WHY, if they had advertised the movie for the coming week, I could not get tickets in advance. The reply to this from the supervisor, to whom I went, was, “We are expecting that some regional language films may get released on Tuesday, in which case this movie will stop running. We will know about this only tomorrow. So we cannot sell you tickets for Wednesday until tomorrow.” To get to PVR, I must either take an auto or spend on petrol and time and go there and pay the ten rupee parking (They NEVER pick up their phone at the booking counter) and perhaps be turned away again.

God bless our mindsets. Let the customer run around, if not him, there are a million others whom we can sell to.