The Business of Firecrackers

I don’t understand this business. For the past two years, a makeshift tent goes up in the barren land near Iblur flyover during Diwali. Big hoardings indicate firecrackers being sold in this shop, run out of the makeshift tent. The service road is filled with cars during Diwali. Sometimes, there are cars parked on the Outer Ring Road disregarding traffic rules and safety concerns. The inconvenience to other be damned if it suits my convenience!

Last year, I ended up buying crackers from this shop after Diwali. I fail to remember how I reached there on the day after Diwali. On reaching the bill counter, I had an anxiety attack when I saw the prices scribbled on the notepad by the person at the counter. It was way beyond my budget. After writing down the prices and tabulating them, they applied a strange formula on the total. Suddenly, the total price were halved! In fact, it had more than halved! That turned out to the price of the firecrackers that I had to pay. The new figure brought a instant rush of relief and I quickly disregarded the strange formula. I didn’t care much and attributed the strange formula as a desperate bid by the shopkeeper to sell his stock.

This year, I went to same shop before Diwali. The same exercise was repeated. First, they wrote down the prices. They added all the prices. Then, they applied the same strange formula. The total was halved. Then they rounded off again to a neat number! Regardless of which day you buy, the shopkeeper is giving you a discount! Then, why the elaborate ploy of calculating a big number and then applying the strange formula?

Picture Courtesy: http://www.sparshflowers.com

Tags: Musings,Diwali,Firecrackers