A Good Team

In Mumbai, as most live in flats, anytime u want a plumber ,electrician or carpenter, u just write yr name in the building society, and they come up after a while and fix up yr troubles.But in small towns like ours, and if u stay in a bunglow, we need  these guys often, to fix our leaking taps or flushes, or fix a light and so on.

And here they take more to come home than a Doctor does.My family doc down the lane takes 100 to come home, these guys, 100 is the minimum even if they have to repair just one leak which takes them 10 minutes.What an irony, a Doc and a plumber or electrician taking the same amount.

But these fellows are a must, and mobile is a boon really as I can catch them anytime.And there are others too who are necessary to be in your team.Most important is the Car mechanic.I have one faithful fellow with me for now 15 years.Every  few  months he sends over his man for picking my cars one by one for service and tuning, and very reasonable fellow.All done on the phone.

And sometimes the car dosnt start, or gets strandanywhere in town, I just call him and he sends me his man immediately, so that is a good boon to have him in my team.

For Sarees and Salwar Suits, my close friend has one of the most reputed showrooms in town.Anytime we have a guest, we  take him there,they can pick up on approval anything they want, bring it home, try it on, and keep what they want and return the rest, the next day.Money is not the issue here.And we get them 15% discount, which we too get from him.

And by chance even after getting the stuff home, if u don’t like even one, return all with the office boy, and it is ok.A lot of clothes for daughter’s wedding came from my friend

For Drycleaning, again a good friend of mine, has his workshop close by.He does for retail customers and also for Hotels, at least half a dozen top ones too.He gets clothes of the guests of the hotel too, and I have seen clothes, and inner garments of some our Bollywood hero’s and heroines too.So if any of my guests want urgent, I just  send over the boy and make him sit there, for an hour, and the clothes come ready, free of charge, he dosnt charge me at all.And I don’t charge him for the Black Labels too.We scratch each other’s back.But i dont take advantage of his goodness.I send very few clothes to him in a year.

The next is the Marble Statue fellow, where u choose what u want, and he has an email ID, he sends u over the pics of say u want Shiva or Krishna, u choose the piece on the interenet, I negotiate theprice with him, and he will give u the piece in Mumbai hand delivery, and then u can pay him there itself.And I go and check the piece here for defects  and make the necessary corrections.And anybody coming to Jaipur, first goes looking for Gods of Marble.And the best part is I must have bought hundreds of Gods for my mom and guests, and I don’t have even one in my house.An irony.

And I have a freight agent, so suppose  a  guest has done too much shopping, no problems.We pack the goods in cartoons and give it to the agent and for 10/- a kilo, u get home delivery in Mumbai at yr home.And the minimum this guy requires is 10 kgs.So not bad for the guest, who is light in baggage and for a few hundred bucks has his goods delivered at  home in Mumbai

I guess it helps to have contacts, and everything is done on phone.And when the guest of  ours is given  our AC Car, with driver, and we too with him, with AC lodging and Boarding free, and we as guides to them, what can they ask for eh !

So I like to have contacts in Jaipur, makes life easier for me and others.And it feels nice when the friends in jaipur trust u with their merchandise.

KAMAL MAHTANI