My brother and me had been to the National Market in Bangalore. Quite famous for electronic items both original and imitations, this market is next only to the SP Road market in terms of the variety and the wares on offer. The chief differences being that this market is open all days of the week unlike SP Road and you need to bargain harder, feign disinterest in case you feel you are paying more and most importantly, have a tough skin to endure verbal abuses that shop keepers hurl at you in case they fail to persuade you to buy at their rates and you just walk away.
MP3 players were what caught my brother's fancy in one of the stores. Manned by a burly oldie past his 50th birthday, the shop's display window had brands from all leading manufacturers. "This one plays MP3, MP4, has FM tuner, can record FM songs and has 512 MB memory. Just 3500 rupees, sir", piped a voice even before we had completed gazing around the wares the shop had to offer. A young teenager came from behind us and left us wondering who the actual owner was. I was amazed at the alacrity of the boy that mesmerized everybody standing around us as he went to reel the capabilities of each of the MP3 players we pointed out. One old lady was so impressed by presentation that she settled on a 128 MB MP3 player to be presented to her grandson at his upcoming birthday. She had no qualms announcing it to all and sundry.
The boy had definitely done his homework, I thought and decided to probe him further. I feigned innocent curiosity and asked him how these players work, how they stores songs and so many at that. He went on to explain without batting an eyelid... of flash memories, MP3s and MP4s. I was amazed at his knowledge. I persisted however with an, "But how exactly can Flash memory store data when you do not supply power to it". Somehow, my ego wanted to prove that I knew better. I was in for a rude shock. He went on to explain about NAND gates and all the inner circuitry that goes into making an MP3 player. I gave up and let myself get enlightened. A very humbling experience, I must say.
My brother meanwhile had gone ahead a chosen himself a dainty blue colored MP3 player. We completed the formalities and I wanted to thank the teenager for sharing his knowledge, but he was nowhere to be sighted. He had disappeared as quickly as he had materialized. With a heavy heart I thanked the burly old man and we were exiting when the old man must have sensed whom I was looking out for. "Shyam college gaya hai. Woh mera beta hai. Electronics mein engineering kar raha hai. Uska abhi class hain" ( Shyam has gone to college. He is my son. He is doing his engineering in electronics. He has got his classes now ). I smiled and walked out confident that he would surely add passion to the business acumen he had inherited from his dad, if ever he took over his dad's business.
MP3 players were what caught my brother's fancy in one of the stores. Manned by a burly oldie past his 50th birthday, the shop's display window had brands from all leading manufacturers. "This one plays MP3, MP4, has FM tuner, can record FM songs and has 512 MB memory. Just 3500 rupees, sir", piped a voice even before we had completed gazing around the wares the shop had to offer. A young teenager came from behind us and left us wondering who the actual owner was. I was amazed at the alacrity of the boy that mesmerized everybody standing around us as he went to reel the capabilities of each of the MP3 players we pointed out. One old lady was so impressed by presentation that she settled on a 128 MB MP3 player to be presented to her grandson at his upcoming birthday. She had no qualms announcing it to all and sundry.
The boy had definitely done his homework, I thought and decided to probe him further. I feigned innocent curiosity and asked him how these players work, how they stores songs and so many at that. He went on to explain without batting an eyelid... of flash memories, MP3s and MP4s. I was amazed at his knowledge. I persisted however with an, "But how exactly can Flash memory store data when you do not supply power to it". Somehow, my ego wanted to prove that I knew better. I was in for a rude shock. He went on to explain about NAND gates and all the inner circuitry that goes into making an MP3 player. I gave up and let myself get enlightened. A very humbling experience, I must say.
My brother meanwhile had gone ahead a chosen himself a dainty blue colored MP3 player. We completed the formalities and I wanted to thank the teenager for sharing his knowledge, but he was nowhere to be sighted. He had disappeared as quickly as he had materialized. With a heavy heart I thanked the burly old man and we were exiting when the old man must have sensed whom I was looking out for. "Shyam college gaya hai. Woh mera beta hai. Electronics mein engineering kar raha hai. Uska abhi class hain" ( Shyam has gone to college. He is my son. He is doing his engineering in electronics. He has got his classes now ). I smiled and walked out confident that he would surely add passion to the business acumen he had inherited from his dad, if ever he took over his dad's business.
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