Celebrating by selling Gandhi

It was my birthday on 26th. Usually I don't plan any celebrations. I always thought I should not plan celebrating my day of birth, but I would always feel nice if someone else planned it for me. The idea of a surprise birthday party thrown by friends always seemed so nice. This time I was feeling different. I don't know why, but I wanted to plan myself and invite friends.
So Devansh and I sat together about a week before to plan how to celebrate. We initially thought of going to Lingampally station and do some cleaning there. We got other ideas too. Finally we decided to sell books written by Gandhi. We basically intended two things through this. We wanted to get a feel (and also give a feel to our friends whom we were to invite) of what it is like to sell something out on the street. And we also wanted to distribute some works of Gandhi. One doesn't find much on Gandhi in books stores, and hardly anyone goes to buy his books. I once asked a store owner if he has any books written by Gandhi ji. He politely declined. But then said " oh sir, we do have the new harry potter book. If you would be interested". I smiled and said no thank you. Harry potter seemed to have taken over the land of Mahatma.

I even called two friends Mumbai and Pune, but only Ruchi could manage to come. I had a list of about 10 people in mind who would join us in the 'party'. The plan was to buy books, sell them on the Punjagutta crossing and then have food.

Ruchi and I went book hunting. Devansh had told us about a shop in exhibition ground in Nampally. When we reached there and said we were looking for books on Gandhi ji, they seemed surprised. As if saying are you sure?? It reminded us of the munna bhai film. The old man took us in the store, offered us seats and asked us which book are we looking for. "All of them", we said. The look on his face made us feel happy about ourselves. He showed us all the books. His autobiography, his book to students, to lawyers, about health and vegetarianism, about village industries. The cheapest was Rs.5 while the most expensive was Rs.35. Gandhi sells cheap, thankfully. It seems the government has given some kind of subsidy on his works so as to encourage people reading it. But I guess the youth today is not attracted by subsidy only. The youth requires some kind of glamour to move.

The next day was 26th. In the morning there was a small ceremony of flag hoisting in the campus. It got over by 9am and we decided to leave by 10am. Unfortunately only 4 of us could gather for the occasion. So off we went. We reached Lingampally station and decided to do a dress rehearsal there. The response we got there was totally unexpected. We didn't manage a single success. Everyone turned down the offer. Some gave funny looks, some laughed. One gentleman said "Gandhi...something something something"...I couldn't understand telugu, but figured that the man doesnt think much of Gandhi. At that point I thought maybe it was a bad idea. I got conscious too. Others too were feeling a bit down, but we still continued with our plan.

We reached Begumpet station, and decided to walk to Punjagutta crossing, which is about 2 km from there. On our way we would try to sell to any prospective buyer. Just then an uncle ji stopped. He seemed interested. He saw all the books we had and decided to buy two. That was our first sale. Our 'boney', and boy we were excited. It was then we decided we will sell all the books and only then go for the biryani.

We spent the next hour and a half at the Punjagutta crossing. The sun was bright. We got all sort of looks. The beggars at the crossing were also interested in what we were selling. One of them even flipped through the books. "I also sell books sometime at the crossings. But have never sold Gandhi ji's books" he said. Yeah I know, I thought.

The books I had were bought by an auto driver. When Ruchi was trying to sell one to two guys on a bike, one of them said he doesnt like Gandhi. But immediately the other one said he likes Gandhi and bought one from her. Devansh met a guy who asked the source we got our books from. He said he would go to the same shop and buy books from there. Devansh tried to sell the books in front of Himalaya book store, thinking that the people who would come there would be interested. But soon the store owner came with his guard and asked Devansh to leave the place...

All in all we had fun. After that we went to paradise to have some nice biryani. Thank you those who came and made my day, and those who could not make it, well we missed you.