Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Conflict of Desires

(Monday Dusk, 6:00pm)….. Alaya and her mother are walking down the streets of St.Thomas. It's Christmas Eve, roadside shops are filled with colorful toys, X-mas trees, Bells... Alaya is usually not very fond of toys but this evening is different for her. Her eyes stopped over a very attractive Toy. It's on the display shelf of “Gifts n Packs”. Alaya is too young to understand the numbers on price tag... She stopped her mother and asked her to buy that attractive toy. Mother could not resist her first request to buy her a toy. Sales person of “Gifts n Packs” welcomed them with a fake smile as they dropped into the nook center.

Sales Person: “How can I help you ma’am?”
Mother: Aaa.. that one..in the right Shelf, th…

Even before Mother could complete her sentence, Sales Person got what they wanted when Alaya pointed her finger at her heart throb. Sales person asked his assistant to get that Toy. The sales person was noticing that Alaya could not stop looking at that Toy until it reached his hands. Even before billing it, Sales person placed the toy in the tender hands of Alaya. Alaya’s excitement had no limits.. she was overwhelmed with Joy. This is the first time she ever asked for something from her mother and now she has it in her hands. Mother asked for the bill, Sales person whispered that the toy costs Rs.3,890 and there is no discount on it. Alaya's mother tried to bargain but the salesperson did not agree to the quoted price. The price is pretty shocking and mother decides not to buy it for two reasons.. First, she didn’t have that huge a cash, second, she didn’t want to spend so much on that little toy. Alaya could understand all of this and simply handed over the Toy back to the sales person. Alaya actually didn’t want to do that but she some how managed to suppress her feelings and walked silently along side her mother.

Mother did not have enough courage to console her as she is confronted with the world’s strongest weapon, silence. Although Alaya is pretty young, she is good in understanding situations and act accordingly without hurting anyone. She rarely speaks her mind or exhibits her desires. When things don’t work, she wouldn’t cry like most of us, but keep it to herself. They have just walked half the distance down the street. Mother decides to take her to another famous Toy shop which is just few shops away from them. It’s called “Toys Kemp”. Mother did not speak a single word but simply took Alaya to Toys Kemp and let Alaya move around to choose a Toy. Alaya was disinterested in it but was just doing it to oblige her mother’s efforts in keeping her happy. As she walked along the stand, she could find umpteen Toys of various colors, sizes, designs. Alaya didn’t find any of them attractive as she was still thinking of the other Toy. She finished her first round of glance and reached back to her mom. She could not tell her mom that she will not be interested in any of these Toys So, She kept walking to take a second glance.. This time her eyes stopped over a Descent but very attractive Toy. She had seen this in her last stroll but didn’t pay much attention to it. Now, she is a bit reluctant.. she is not sure if she should choose something and get emotionally attached to it for obvious reasons. But she could not stop her eyes getting hooked on to it. She walked back to that Toy and was starring at it for some time. Toys Kemp like Gifts n Packs did have sales persons but they wouldn’t intrude the freedom of walking and choosing what you want on your own. A sales person kept watching all of this silently from a distance.

Alaya is still confused whether to pick it up or not. She knows that her mother will buy her this time no matter how much it costs. The toy has all that she thinks a toy should have. Above all of that she likes it.. even more than the first one. Besides slight traces of fear of loosing it again like the first one, its irresistible for her to fall in love with it. There is no reason for her to leave the place without the toy. After fighting the battle of dilemma, she finally decides to choose it for her. The beauty of second Toy has almost made her forget the first one. She walked up to her mom and said “I would like to have this for me”. Her mom whole heartedly accepted and looked for the sales person to bill it. The sales person replied her with a smile as if he knew everything that happened in Gifts n Packs and whispered to the guy at the counter to give them a discount of 60% (which is really unusual at Toys Kemp). After the billing he walked up to Alaya, bent a little and asked Alaya to take it. Alaya in all her happiness stretched her arms and was about to take it…

“…. excuse me ma’am, sorry to bother you”

It's the sales person from “Gifts n Packs” who came running all the way holding the same Toy that Alaya and her mother did not buy last time. The sales person said..

“… ma’am, our proprietor thinks that you can buy this for the same price you had asked for”

Mother, is with money in her hands to pay it to the sales person at Toys Kemp..
Alaya, is with her stretched arms ready to receive the Toy she just chose for herself..
The sales person (of Toys Kemp) is about to hand over the Toy..
And the sales person (from Gifts n Packs) is also with stretched arms in front of Alaya and about to hand over the Toy she chose sometime back…


Readers, what do you think Alaya should do now??

Should she stop buying the second one and go with the first one?
Should she buy the second one?
Should she stop looking for Toys at all?

(for all of those wondering why such a boring story by Kbhbejti..)

Well, this is just a small thought on human behavior when confronted with conflict of desires made over a time in the form of a story.. In the story, If we can envisage ourselves in the shoes of Alaya, then we can easily relate toys to what we wish to "achieve/own/commit into a relationship with someone" in our lives... salespersons are like the external force (to us) driving those achievables/relationships, influencing them.. (could be a person's attitude in case of a relationship or a process in case of an examination). Alaya's mother is like everything else other than you and your dream.. say your friends, family, relatives, society..etc who may stop you or help you from getting what you want.

I will conclude the story in my next post after I receive a couple of comments on this. Let’s see what others think that Alaya should do about it.

8 comments:

Sandesh said...

First tell me how you got that name?? Hearin it for the first time.

Alaya should do whatever she feels correct and If I were Alaya (I wish not to be! Am very weak @ making decisions) I would go with the second gift coz

1. You mentioned that Alaya liked the second one better than the first.

2. Though "Gifts n Packs" are ready to sell the first gift for a discount, its actually based on sympathy which i hate to take. You are outa that shop and you cannot budge something for some of your principles which you've been maintaining since years.

3. Its already billed. Cancelling the bill is not good and the second shop owner will feel bad which he doesn't deserve. He knows how to deal with customers unlike the first shop owner.

Now, complete the story being you casted as Alaya! =)

Maran said...

In the point of Alaya, if she is bold enough !!!

She would be selected the first one, with points of ...

1. The first one is first impression and made her to fall down(a bit depression).

2. Even though full freedom of selection, she is a bit afraid of choosing the second one

In point of her mom and Alaya convince, she would have selected second toy because
her mom did not have hesitation with the sales person and no issues

We cannot decide what she could have done.

The point is, once the relationship or attitude is broken with other person, even though we may interested to see how other person obey or talk to us, we are mostly not fully forgiven the things and allowing other person to be as freedom as first time. we keep judging on other person with first/wrong incident. In general we live in the case of Alaya's mom decision that is second one.

ankurg said...

Alaya should choose the toy she thinks is better.

Her mother must decide based on her priorities. What matters more for her - Alaya, price, her principles ?

But, nice way of leaving things open! It brings in more comments..

@Sandesh,
I think point 2 is based on assumption that the lower price was offered at sympathy. Many times shopkeepers come back at lower price once they feel the customer is not buying this at the shopkeeper's price.

KbHbEjTi said...

@sandesh, maran and ankurg

Thanks for your responses.. my comments will be in my next post!

FirstRayM said...

If i am Alya I will give u one nice kick (ya u read it right:) kick) for violating my copyrights and publishing my private content on net....
If Alya is bound to GPL i will leave it to Alya

KbHbEjTi said...

@firstraym

mmh.. you seem to be very particular about privacy.. hiding your profile from people.. questioning Alaya's private life being publicized!

Anonymous said...

u ve given like "my comments will be in my next post!" but i cant find ur comments. Wen u ll post ur coments

Anonymous said...

I have one conclusion

By the time alaya taking the decision ....The first toy liked by alaya was also liked by another customer and they are ready to purchase for the same price so the the seller sold to the another customer.
The second toy also liked by one more diff customer and they already made the purchase(So much demand). Now alaya has to go for some another toy other than those two and finally she got the one according to her budget aslo. So she and her mom left home happily :)
P.S:In both the shops only one piece was available

- sandy