You no longer have to book an outstation telephone call with the Kashmere Gate office. Nor do you have to shell out Rs.48 to make a call from your mobile. Technology has grown by leaps and bounds, and nobody is happier than the GenEx. The young guys and gals love everything dished out in the name of technology; already the smart phone is passé. Many talk animatedly comparing the features of their respective phone and tabs. Never mind if half of the features are never used by a vast majority of buyers.
If the young guns swear by technology – there is even a new text lingo that frowns at conventional English – you can trust some enterprising professionals to capitalise on it. Go down to Nehru Place. Some old-timers might remember it for the age-old Paras cinema, some office-goers for all those match-stick offices in skyscrapers, youngsters though call it the place where technology comes at affordable price. Be it a laptop, a tab or even the good old desktop, everything is available for a bargain. With all the stuff being locally assembled, it is scarcely a surprise. Of course, the big brand tags come for a little extra price.
The shops range from the fanciful to the ordinary. While most are a little better than tiny cubicles, some charm people with their glitter. In its own quiet sort of way, the market is fast staking a claim to being the biggest in Delhi, and among the biggest in the country for the latest in the world of gadgets. Smart, sleek, improvised, they all come every other step in Nehru Place.
As indeed they do in Ghaffar Market in Karol Bagh. Here the stuff is comparatively even more inexpensive. The locally assembled mobiles offer everything in a single contraption. What’s more, the young men at the counters claim to repair any mobile of any make at the drop of a hat. Virus in your mobile? No problem. The gadget got locked? No issues. Want new features? No hitch.
It is a strange little world of gadgets by the streetside. But believe, nobody is complaining. Neither the shopkeepers who do brisk business nor the buyers who avail of the latest at the price they can afford. Did somebody SMS me the word, “ethical”?
