What if you had your phone, money and identification snatched away for a few hours? What if within those few hours you had to make as much money as possible on the street? What would you sell? A song? Perhaps a dance? How about asking people to invest in your future? Can you do it? Does it sound impossible?
Well, some first year students at the Faculty of Management Studies did all this and more – turning Rs.500 shared between the 10 of them into Rs.16, 000 in just a few hours – as part of their traditional “Merchants of Delhi”, or initiation into the world of marketing.
“We had no idea as we started out that morning for class, that we would be given this task. The rules were simple. We could not beg, borrow or reveal the name of the institute. Two seniors from the marketing society accompanied us to make sure nobody broke the rules,” said Jayant Babani, who won a wrestling match, did competitive push-ups, carried shopping bags and hunted for a particular brand of imported lollipop that someone insisted on in return for money. This group of 10 divided themselves into three mini-groups and headed to places where people are most likely to spend – Connaught Place and Khan Market.
“I was rewarded for my honesty. An old couple asked me to reveal why I was there and where I was from, and I refused. They offered me Rs.100, but I still refused. They were so impressed that they gave me Rs.500,” said Rishabh Khandelwal, who walked all around Connaught Place looking for medicines an old couple could not find.
He also took close to 60 photographs for some girls in return for money.
“I started my task before we even reached our designated place. I started to dance for whoever was willing to pay me. Outside the metro station, inside the station and metro. Some of the girls who paid me really well asked for funny songs. It was a bit embarrassing, especially when they started taking videos, but I felt really good at the end, ”said Siddharth Bhatti. However, not everything was all fun. “A bunch of girls made me sing and I didn’t get paid,” says Gargi Brahma, who sold a lot of other songs, mostly to mixed groups and groups of boys.
“The foreigners were really stingy. They thought we were scamming them. The most we got out of them was Rs.20. We stopped approaching foreigners after that,” said Imran Khan.
“Some people kept chasing us away, of course. Then there were others who made a fuss because we went inside a cafe, and there were others from our college who came there and kept saying we were scamsters,” said Kartavya Nahar.
Running around to find parking, finding a parked car, convincing people that they needed to buy expensive roses and chocolates and, of course, conversations where people parted with money believing you would be a famous entrepreneur — all helped the winning team earn the Rs.16,000
However, like any exercise, there were lessons to be learnt.
“I realised that people were happy paying for momentary happiness,” said Deepna Tigga.
