The Art of Bargaining

I visited Battery park in Manhattan last week searching for some bargains. I was never the best negotiator of deals, usually settling for the advertised price. So, I instead observed my friends as they bargained with the street vendors for some fake designer goods. Here was the conversation that occurred.

Friend: How much for that item.
Street vendor: $45
Friend: $45 ? ... I will give you $20.
Street vendor: No mon, I cannot do that, you crazy man.
Friend: I talked to the vendor a few stalls down and he was giving me that same item for $20.
Street vendor: Brutha, I cannot do that deal.
Friend: That's fine, I will just go to the other vendor and purchase it.
Street vendor: aight, aight, give me $20.

The three lessons that I learned from this conversation were:

1) Starting bargaining at half the initial price and work up.
2) Use the "The other vendor is giving me that same item for that price" line .
3) Act like you have nothing to lose, the vendor is the one who is losing the sale.

Use this advice at your own risk, don't be spamming me if it doesn't work.

Vacation Withdrawal

The worst thing about a vacation is that it needs to end, but indeed all good things in life come to and end, so did my vacation. It was a wonderful break from the daily routines in life mainly the driving, waking up early and working.
I had the priviledge of visiting the wonderful cities of Boston and New York. Thanks to Bilal and Omair for their helpful travel ideas.

Boston is a wonderful city, I compare it to Quebec City except the English version. I was even able to pick up the Boston accent, which is basically not pronouncing the letter "r" in any words. In Boston, I did the whole museum scene, visiting the Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science and Museum of Natural History. I also realized how cool animals are when I visited the New England Aquarium, thereafter, for some odd reason I had the urge to eat them so I ate seafood at the Seafood Legal restaurant in Quincy square. My favorite part of the trip was visiting historic Fenway park. It is an amazing baseball stadium with so much history (Offically became a Red Sox's fan). The last day in Boston I spent visiting Harvard university and MIT, where I chatted up with the smart rich students. Although, I still think that going to a Canadian university for your undergrad is the best value for higher education in the world.

Manhattan, New York is quite a remarkable city, many famous landmarks and interesting people. I learned that New Yorkers are quite open about their problems. Random people would start complaining to me about their in-laws. I just nod and listen, hoping they would leave me alone and not kidnap me. I visited the typical tourist spots in Manhattan such as Times Square, where I was almost dragged into the street show that was right next to a taping of a Bollywood movie. I tried walking into Radio city music hall without paying, but was denied. I posed as an investment banker on Wall street, but decided instead to chill out and eat Gyro's from a halal street vendor across from the New York stock exchange. I was able to practice my bargaining skills which every desi has inherited from their parents at Battery park. Other sites of note that I visited were the Chrysler building, World Trade center memorial, Central park, Ed Sullivan theatre, Statue of liberty, Empire state building, UN headquarter and The Producers Broadway show.

It has been tough to get back to work this week, as I miss being on vacation. Work is very different from vacation, as taking pictures of people writing code at work is not much of a tourist attraction.

Missing in Action from My Blog

There will not be any blogging for me next week, as I will be on my vacation. I will be visiting the wonderful cities of Boston and New York. I believe it is after this trip when I will make a crucial life decision, which is:

Will I be a Yankees or Red Sox's fan?

I will be spending the first few days in Boston and then the next couple of days in New York. If anyone has any suggestions for places to eat, things to do, and stuff to avoid, please leave a comment.

The Advantages of Being a Whiner

After graduating from university, I like most desi people moved back home with my parents. Going back home this time also meant helping my parents with the daily expenses and bills.
So, one day I volunteered to purchase a new toaster oven, our old toaster oven had not been working for sometime. I purchased a toaster oven on sale from Canadian Tire for a decent price. One week later, my parents decided that they did not like this toaster oven , so they returned it and bought a significantly cheaper one without consulting me. I hated the toaster oven my parents purchased, I never quite understood how it worked.
Recently, this toaster oven stopped working, but was still under warranty. With all this built up anger, I decided to send the people at Black and Decker an email. Here it is:

My toaster is under warranty and would like a replacement. I have greatly disappointed in the performance of this toaster. It is not easy to use and its sudden failure has made it very frustrating to use. If possible, I would like to get another toaster oven of greater quality.
Your response to my request will factor into any future Black and Decker product purchases.

So, the result, within 2 days, I received a new toaster oven better than the previous one.


The key to a company complaint letter is to give the statement:

Your product stinks and if you don't help me, I will never buy your product.

The morals of this story are that if you whine enough and stern enough, you typically get what you want. Also, if you decide to purchase something without your parents consent, expect them to return it and buy something else while at the same time turning a profit ... living at home, living at home ... atleast my mom's fresh roti makes up for it.

Being Misquoted

We are often misquoted in life, either accidently or intentionally. Politicians often say they are misquoted to backtrack from an accidental statement they have made to the media. Either to protect their reputation, or redeem themselves from offending a person or group of people.

Then there are times when you wish someone you were talking to could be misquoted. I often get stuck sitting by one of my uncles in a family gathering. The following is the conversation that ensues:

Uncle: You know that [insert country here] is a puppet of the USA
Me: How do you know? What is your proof or rationale?
Uncle: You are young, you don't understand like I do. The media is propaganda. I know everything about politics.
Me: But ... But ....
Uncle: See, you have no reply

Recently, Christian conservative Pat Robertson made news for his call to assassinate Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. His statements were dismissed by the US government. Later, Mr. Robertson said that he was misquoted:

"I didn't say 'assassination.' I said our special forces should 'take him out.' And 'take him out' can be a number of things, including kidnapping;

If you read his original statement, he is caught on tape saying the word assassination. So, let me break this down. Assassinate means "take him out", which means kidnapping ... umm, like what?

I finish off this blog entry in misquoted style:

This is the best blog entry you have ever read, if not, I will "financially" compensate you. ;-)

The word "Sharia"

My fellow blogger has beat me to the "blog-press" on comments about the recent announcement of no Sharia law in Ontario. But, I shall shed some additional insight on this topic.
The debate of Sharia law has been greatly misunderstood by the general population. Sharia law is not coming to Ontario. What is proposed is voluntary, consensual, arbitration between adults on civil disputes, as practiced by other religious groups. Part of the rationale is to reduce the amount of cases currently in our courts. Most people argue that Sharia law is bias against women. This bias often occurs since Sharia law is associated with human rights abuses that we hear from countries like Afghanistan and Nigeria.

When someone hears the word "Sharia", they automatically associate it to human rights abuses in Muslim countries. I think if the word "Sharia" was replaced by

Laws that 'moderate' Muslims want to follow

there would be less people giving their opinion on this debate. If you were to look up the word Sharia in the dictionary, you get the following definition:

The code of law derived from the Koran and from the teachings and example of Mohammed PBUH (Sunaah).

Last time I checked a Muslim is one that follows Islam. Islam is defined as:

A monotheistic religion characterized by the acceptance of the doctrine of submission to God and to Muhammad as the chief and last prophet of God

Since the Quran is the word of God given to the prophet Muhammad PBUH, it is clear a Muslim is one who follows the Quran and teachings of the prophet.

The actual act of following the laws in the Quran and teachings of the prophet is not as simple as the definition as there are different interpretations among Islamic scholars on various issues. But, Muslims acknowledge this fact, and we are all in agreement that we may differ in our interpretation, but to be Muslim you must principally accept that you should follow the laws of the Quran and teachings of the prophet.

One might question Sharia law by the fact that human rights abuses occur in countries that use Sharia law. However, many of the people in these countries are uneducated and live in poverty, allowing the government to interpret Sharia law in their favor. I was curious to see how Sharia law could be used to solve civil disputes in a country like Canada, with an educated population and democratic government, but I guess no more. An interesting point made by a fellow blogger states the fact that Queens park hoped Boyd's report would make their decision easier, but in-fact proved counter-productive. It seems the easiest decision for the government was to back-down, thereby avoiding world-wide attention on this issue.

An interesting consequence of no Sharia law in Ontario is that there will no longer be religious arbitration in Ontario, which means that other religious group such as Catholics, Mennonites, aboriginals and others can no longer use the Ontario Arbitration Act to solve civil disputes. It seems the result of this decision has been collective punishment for all religious groups. I just hope this does not lead to more backlash against Muslims. It seems like we are always to blame for all the problems in our lives.

How much would you pay for Toronto Maple Leaf tickets

I recently discovered at work that my company is offering Toronto Maple Leaf hockey tickets to a select set of games this year. Although, the Toronto Maple Leaf recently accounced, a 5% rollback on tickets this year, they are still one of the most expensive sporting events to see in North America.

The cost of the ticket being offered is $180.00. It includes:

• Ticket to the game
• VIP entrance and private elevator
  
• Sports fan buffet

Is it worth it to spend this much money on a hockey game?

Sania Mirza ... Indian tennis prodigy

I happened to stumble upon a women's tennis match on television this weekend, which grabbed my interest. The match involved Maria Sharapova, the world's number 1 women's tennis player from Russia versus Sania Mirza, an 18 year-old rising tennis star from Hyderabad (pronounced Hi-deera-bad by the American announcer), India. Yes, India!!!, a country known more for Bollywood movies, outsourcing of IT jobs, and those funky accents, made popular by Apu from The Simpsons. I admit, I am a tennis fan, both the men and women games. Although, I do find the clothes that the women wear to be distracting. Sania Mirza, who describes herself as a practicing Muslim wears an attire, which even by her account is very unislamic. During a recent interview, she answered the question of being Muslim and playing tennis.

Not everyone is perfect and just because I wear a miniskirt or because I'm wearing pants doesn't make me a bad Muslim.

Recently, Sania's father requested the WTA to allow for her to wear more conservative clothing, but was rejected. It states in its rule book,

... (players) shall not wear sweatshirts, sweat pants, t-shirts, jeans, or cut-offs during matches.

The road to stardom for Sania has not been easy. She grew up and practiced in India, a country without good tennis facilities. The fact that she is a female athlete in a country where athletics are dominated by males is a surprise. Being a Muslim female athlete is even rarer to see since Muslim athletes anywhere in the world is not common. Having overcome these barriers, she has the opportunity to cash in with endorsements and match appearance fees. With over a billion fans in India, she is likely the most popular women's tennis player in the world.

As I watched the match unfold, which Maria Sharapova easily won, I cheered for Sania, hoping she would win. I am impressed with her courage, personality and talent. Part of me wanted her to win because she was South Asian, another part of me wanted her to win because she was Muslim. Is there anything wrong with that?

Addicted to Email

I have already realized the benefits of blogging. Blogs make it easier to find news and views from sources most relevant to me.

The Internet is overwhelmed with information, and finding information to ones needs and taste can be quite difficult. How many times have you asked someone to send you a link to a news article, "How to" Web page or a funny picture. When I want to share information with others, I send out a mass email to everyone. But, really how many times do we read an article received from email. Especially, if it is an religious email, those emails are usually longer, and we feel guilty if we don't read them. Like, it is haram to delete them. My friends typically will follow-up after sending a religious email. Here is a typical conversation.

Religious email dude: Brother, did you read the email I sent you. What beautiful words of Allah.
Me: Sorry bro, I have been busy with work, have not had time to read it.
Religious email dude: You do not have time for this deen and Allah, but have time for work. Astagfirillah brother, this is the problem with this umaah, no one seems to care about propagating this deen.
Me: (In my head) Remember to add Religious email dude email address to junk email list.

The most interesting fact is that we love email. I admit, I check email atleast 2-3 times a day. At work, when I get an email (work or personal), I stop whatever I'm doing to read the new email. If the email is not a picture or a simple paragraph, I do not even bother reading it. The fact is that we all love to receive email, but not read them.

Switching to a completely different topic, and the original intention of my post.
Hurricane Katrina is the most popular news topic these days, and lots of information and articles are out there. Here is a summary of the most interesting that I have found.

• Race and bias in the media in pictures.
• New Orleans Mayor responds to Hurricane Katrina
• Kanye West speaks out against relief effort
• Andersen Cooper yells at Louisiana senator
• An opinion out of left-field, Fox News Bill O'Reilly suggests his reason as to why people did not leave New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

The blogging has begun

My first post should probably explain the rationale as to why I am starting this blog and hope to accomplish from it. Well, first off, it seems to be the hip thing to have these days. It provides people a medium to sound off about their problems or keep us up-to-date on the daily occurences in their life. It is like an online reality show. We are already obsessed with realities shows, from Survivor to the Amazing race. Reality shows are really a show about nothing. No plot, no story, just people doing stuff. Most blogs are about people doing stuff and reading them makes me either bored or jealous.

For me, blogging will provide an opportunity to talk about issues that matter to me. I was always the type of person who wanted to stand up for injustices in this world by either writing a letter to the editor or attending a protest, but never did, mainly cause of laziness. However, I think this blog will provide an opportunity for me to condemn injustices and praise good-worthy causes. I do not think it will change the world, but shall satisfy my conscience, before I get my own reality show.

So, to finish off in a grande finale ... some marketing hype

I hope this blog will be thought-provoking, challenge the status quo, make you think of issues like you have never thought of them before.

I hope you will come back and read, and post some comments. I am always looking for new distractions at work.