The Bitten Apple

The blast of air conditioning and murmur of well-behaved crowd of people greeted us as we entered the tiny reception cum waiting room of the service center. A well-modulated and pleasant voice greeted us, “HI! Please take a token and take a seat”. The room was stuffed with people; there were some ten seats which were already occupied. The tiny floor space was crammed with pairs of feet- where do we take a seat? I wondered. Fortunately number forty four was called and two seats fell vacant and we promptly took them without waiting for anyone else! (I justified it as being the only females, we had a right to getting the seat! ).

So far so good! I sighed with relief. I was unconsciously playing with my token when my TT* noticed that it had twenty seven written on it. We had a nice discussion on it about how we will ever be called from forty four to twenty seven! We decided it must be till fifty and then it starts again and we groaned! However poor both our math is we can count! The many numbers before us brought my morale down. We settled down to a long wait……..

My TT was messaging furiously on her I-phone so I decided to take out my non-I-phone in the hallowed sanctum and play on it! I played “Lep’s world” till I died and then decided to indulge in one of my favourite pastimes- observing people and passing sotto voice comments on them. There was a kitty party group of ladies waiting outside talking nineteen to a dozen, One young teenager holding on to a mac, and I pod and a phone (a normal phone thank God!) sitting slouched on a seat looking very depressed and holding token number twenty four. (I was assured then, that they would eventually get to my number!). The usual crowd of apple product owners were there- each vying for attention!

Then walked in Ms. Heroine with streaked hair, tight dress and pencil heels and started talking with one of the attendants in a loud voice. “Can you believe it?” she intoned, “I bought this Mac yesterday, it worked for six hours and then pfft! Shelled out two lakhs for such a cheap product!” I sympathized with her but having been “well brought up” I kept my mouth shut! She was of course asked to wait but she walked out in a huff and came back with her dark glasses on; hung around for some time (None of the chivalrous guys got up to give their seat!) then talked on her phone loudly for some time then walked out again!

I missed her! She had brought some colour and excitement into that “stiff upper lip” kind of environment. Now the only color was the depressed teenager in a pink color co-ordinated outfit. The boys were in their falling-down jeans and crumpled t-shirts and the men in their formal crumpled linen shirts and black pants!

I felt sorry for all the people there. They had bought the apple product thinking that they are paying premium price which would leave them hassle free. Like our elders tell us “money cannot buy happiness” or peace for that matter!

I soon noticed that the number calling had slowed down, it was still at forty six and we had been sitting there for at least one hour! I started paying more attention to the people around and I realized that many on the pretext of collecting their products were jumping the queue. Still I kept quiet…..till I saw this young man walking up to the pretty attendant and getting his problem sorted out. He was unfortunately toying with his token which had twenty eight written on it! Then I forgot all my convent school education and protested! The young lady had to pay attention as the other people looked at her accusingly and she reluctantly asked him to wait. 

Now it was my turn to be glared at by number twenty eight! After this our number was called within ten minutes of my protest (This should teach us that to be a gentleman, never pays in India!). Now a gentleman listened to our minor problem and assured us that we would get a replacement within three days. What were we supposed to do till three days? We asked. An elegant shrug of the shoulder and that was it! We walked back with the hope that the problem would be solved within three days. Sadder and wiser…..

When my TT was ten years I had bought a pair of earrings in the shape of the bitten apple and she had loved it and still wears them even now after six years! I don’t know whether it was a sign but she fell in love with all apple products and has slowly but surely buying them over the years. In fact she has refused new pair of earrings from her aunt because she doesn't want to give them up. She has actually bitten the forbidden apple and cannot give it up!

But yesterday’s experience did what I have not been able to! She is slowly opening her eyes to the fact that Apple products like any other product in the market has its flaws only it is definitely at least thirty percent more expensive!

P.S. To clear one mystery, the tokens began from twenty five and ended at fifty! What the logic behind it is something I haven’t cared to find out…

P.S.2 – The depressed teenagers’ Mac had fallen in water and was a complete wash out and she would have to pay a lakh to get it working!

* Terrible Teenager