What do you do when you're given ₹ 5000 to shop for free?

In this era of online retail, it is such a huge relief to be able to shop for all kinds of necessities, no matter how big or small, from the comfort of one's home. Given Delhi's extreme weather conditions, rarely interspersed with pleasant days, going out for shopping has become such a Herculean task that I absolutely abhor setting foot in crowded markets and prefer buying all I possibly can from the Internet. Now there is quite a lot of competition in the online buy-and-sell market, but I believe Quikr.com is fast outclassing its competitors to become the ultimate one-stop shop for anything and everything you wish to buy or sell, from used stuff lying around your home to that car or pet animal, right up to commercial products that you own a business of.

It goes without saying, then, how joyful a moment it was when I received an email from Blogadda inviting me to participate in their latest activity wherein I'd have to shop from Quikr.com for ₹ 5000 (that will be reimbursed later on) and blog about my experience. Here goes then.

I logged in to Quikr with the intention of finding a second hand smartphone, preferably Micromax, to keep at home as a spare phone for emergencies like the breakdown of one of our personal phones. I keyed "Micromax mobile phones" in the Search box and chose the filter "Ads posted in last 24 hours". I also customized my search by selecting the price range of 0 to 5057 rupees (the nearest figure to 5000 that I could manually set). Finally these results showed up.

One of the mobile phones I was interested in buying, as the location and price fit the bill well.

I found 3-4 phones that fit my requirements, so I noted down the numbers of the individual sellers from the respective ad pages on Quikr and called them up one after the other to inquire. It was however my bad luck as none of the phones were still for sale - they had all been sold already! Dejected, I began racking my brains for some other things that my family members or I could possibly need. And then it hit me - exercise equipment!

This time round I tried a different approach. Browsing through the various sub-categories listed under "Home and Lifestyle" category, I selected the "Sport - Fitness Equipment" subcategory. I also applied all the same filters as in the previous search (although I later increased the price range to 6000 to get a wider choice of exercise bikes). I further opted for the filter "Posted by Dealer", for I thought it more prudent to purchase brand new exercise equipment as it would be sturdier and also carry a warrantee.

Left Side Panel where you can choose different filters and categories.

After much browsing, I zeroed in on an exercise bike which was listed for ₹ 5,500.

The Quikr listing of the exercise bike I selected. It was listed at ₹ 5,500 when I made the deal, but the price has been removed now.

Although it exceeded my limit of free shopping, I thought what the heck! If I'm buying something, I'd rather buy the best I can find. A meager 500 bucks that are not reimbursed won't make any difference to the pleasure of owning the Air Bike Platinum Dx. So I called up the dealers, KS Healthcare, on the number listed in the ad and inquired about the product. A time and date for delivery was fixed, and even though the delivery came more than a day late due to paucity of staff, the bike eventually arrived at my place yesterday.

The price tag of ₹ 5,500 as listed against the bike earlier has since been removed, however. So if you'd open the same ad page now, it doesn't quote a price at all. The phrase "Contact for Price" is mentioned in place of price on all the listing pages across the website, as the one in the screenshot below.

I assume it must be something between the dealer and Quikr.com. I personally paid the dealer the exact amount I had seen the product listed for (I wish I could've bargained though! :D) The bike is tentatively perched in the lobby of my home for now, and it works just fine. The delivery guy gave me a proper receipt with the taxes etc in place, so I'm warranted against malfunctioning of the bike for at least a year.

My shopping experience on Quikr was an interesting mix of good and less than good. Here's a quick low-down:

Plus:

1. The site lists almost everything you can think of buying or selling for everyday use as well as specialized purposes. Be it Diwali shopping for gifts or regular shopping for electronics, home furnishings or even real estate, you'll find it all there. My mom, personally, has become a huge fan of Quikr.com lately.

2. It also has a provision for listing services (which I've earlier made use of by listing my father's services as a doctor) which makes its coverage of people's needs much more comprehensive.

3. The provision of various filters and categorical division of products makes it mighty easy to sort through undesirable stuff and find a product matching your requirements quickly.

4. One doesn't even have to register on or login to the Quikr website in order to make purchases (though you will have to do so if you are a seller). It is quite a welcome change from the usual online retail websites where you have to register, login, save your contact and payment details etc. Hassle-free shopping, dealing directly with the seller - I loved it.

Minus:

 1. You might have guessed already - the listed prices of the products tend to change/disappear from one day to another! One moment a product appears on top of the search results, and 6 hours later that same product may be difficult to find even after applying suitable filters. I do not know the exact mechanism behind these listings, but Quikr administrators could probably do something about this. It just makes browsing difficult if you plan to do it in 2-3 sessions, that's all. No grudges.

2. There needs to be a mechanism wherein Quikr guys ensure that an ad of a product that has been sold off is removed from the website immediately. I had a hard time buying a phone as every person I called had already sold their product. It cost me unnecessary call balance and time and energy, and to what avail? None.

3. There is some flaw in the dating system for the ads. Every one of the people I called regarding the phone claimed to have put up their ad several weeks/days ago, while Quikr.com listed each of those ads as having been posted within the last 24 hours. In conjunction with Minus #2, this makes for a less-than-pleasant shopping experience as it chips away at the buyer's time and energy and leads to frequent disappointment. This should positively be worked on.

In short, if I were offered to take a go at it again, and this time with no promises of reimbursement, would I shop from Quikr? HELL YEAH. 

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(This post is a part of Quikr.com activity at BlogAdda.com)

Book Review: Wings of Courage by Sanjay Kumar

It's been a while since I wrote on the blog. Let not that make you believe I haven't missed writing. It's just that, whenever I had a story idea in mind, my internet went for toss. And when the internet was working, I'd no longer have the time or inspiration to write. I had all but given up on this blog, when along came motivation in the form of a book review that I lunged at to break free of this spell of literary inactivity. 

Wings of Courage is a novel that aims at making its readers sit back and think. It puts forward the author's vision for a better India of tomorrow - low on crime and hatred, high on humanity and justice. And it does so by means, not of the Shashi Tharoor-esque visionary writing and idealization, but through a fictional thriller of a plot that draws on recent real-life incidents to drive home the author's idea of an ideal India. 

Penned by debutant author Mr. Sanjay Kumar (you can find him here), the book comes at an opportune time as India is currently witnessing a massive social upheaval buttressed by people's assertion of their rights as citizens and human beings. The Indian society is afflicted by a host of issues today - atrocities and discrimination against women, corruption in politics and public services, road rage, bribery, honour killings, social apathy and a general lack of humanity. These social evils aren't isolated incidents, but have deepened their roots into the very fabric of our being and thus affect us all as members of society, making our world a scary place to live in. Normally a country's government and security agencies would be concerned about ridding the society of crime and social ills, but when the political class itself has become an integral part of the entire setup, the onus of social change and reform comes down to the common people.

What our society needs today is for these very common people to realize what an infinite potential they hold inside them to change their life conditions and those of the world around them. Wings of Courage is a worthy step by the author towards fulfilling his responsibility in that direction and bringing awareness to young readers. By picking up incidents that have come to light in recent times, evoking public hue and cry and mobilizing the youth towards social causes, the author establishes an instant connect with his target audience - the youth which is full of energy and dissent towards social and political injustices.

The story starts with an introduction of its main characters Saksham, Divya, Asif and Aditya, a group of final year students looking forward to lucrative corporate careers, far removed from any realization of how the big bad world out there works. Their lives and friendships are transformed forever when Asif and Saksham board a bus one night. Here the author has successfully tried to give a fresh perspective on the recent tragic gang-rape incident by recounting, from the eyes of two passengers of that fateful bus, the events that preceded the gang-rape of the hapless young woman on 16th December 2012. The realization and the immense guilt that follow the next day when Saksham and Asif hear of the incident that occurred after they alighted from the bus the previous night, set the base for a series of episodes throughout the rest of the book where Saksham demonstrates the potential of a responsible common citizen towards ridding the society of its problems.

As the story progresses, the protagonist Saksham goes on to become a new-age hero - a harbinger of change. In collusion with the Almighty (yes, there's a slightly unreal twist to the story - Saksham can actually talk to God!) he tries to understand the problems of the world and to find out solutions to them. Several common problems like hit-and-run, petty corruption, bribery, political apathy and farmers' plights have been dealt with in a comprehensive and solution-oriented manner by the author. The book is gripping, interspersed with philosophical discourse, romance and even a hint of idealistic banter, yet not so much as to bore the reader. The end is a bit too dramatic for my taste, but it seemed like the only suitable end to the story and hence, gets a pass.

Having personally been involved in social work all of my adult life and being a reader and an observer, I know how deeply rooted our society's problems are. And yet they aren't irreparable. It could be a change as little as turning around your personal life, or as big as cleansing the country of corruption, but it's ultimately the action you take that matters, and not mere knowledge or intention. For me that is the mantra of the author that comes out well throughout the book.

The book is 312 pages long, priced at INR 250 and can be purchased here. Considering that it is the author's first book and his treatment of such sensitive subject matter is laudable, I would give it a rating of 3.5 on 5. Keep writing, Mr. Kumar!