That one clever thing

“This was back in 1965-66, I was fifteen years old. My parents finally decided to make their wish of a foreign trip a reality. They decided to go to Switzerland; I stayed back with my ailing grandfather and a caretaker; I would visit the country myself later on in life.



My parents asked me if there was anything I wanted them to bring for me and I said action figures, the action figures abroad were amazing and they weren’t easily available in our country. I think they forgot to buy it and at the last moment they bought chocolates and a lot of them.



I was obviously not very happy to see the chocolates; I had given a good description of the superhero, whose action figure I wanted and I was very excited about it, even imagining the ways I would brag about it to my friends, but we can say that, all that turned into chocolate.



The chocolates were very tasty though and I loved every bit of any bar I ate. On my visit to the local grocery store I told the store owner about them and he told me that even if they were available in the country, they would be very expensive. I asked the difference of price in what they were available here and the difference was a lot more than even double or triple their price back in the country where they were produced and this gave me an idea.



I asked for the price of chocolates from my mother and then I offered them at a reasonable price to my classmates in school. I explained to them how much they would have to pay if they went and bought these chocolates at a store here and that the price I was offering was much better. They didn’t buy at first, but some of them may have asked around and found out that my price was actually reasonable and I sold a few chocolates and made some money with profit which was a lot for a penniless me back then.



I kept the money safely and I secretly carried it with me whenever I went out with my parents in the family car. I expected to come across a nice toy store, since none of them were within my bicycle riding range. One day I came across one when we went out to celebrate my cousin’s birthday, there was a beautiful toy store near the restaurant. The quality of the board displaying the store’s name alone was enough to let you know that it had some amazing stuff inside. I bought two batman figures of different kinds and hid them in my father’s car.



My parents were surprised as to where I had come across the money but I explained it to them and you know how parents are, they would rather have you come to them for money than doing something like this.




You can say in a way this was my first selling, profiting and realising a dream experience. I was able to become a fine salesman in life, although it’s sad because I was never able to start my own business, but I guess it is what it is,” said 75 years old Mr Razdan to me one day and this was the last conversation I had with him

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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