Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Buying an Amazon Kindle 2 in India? Bollywood estyle!

Scene 0 – The hero spots the heroine. Love at first sight – General Specs
3644858-2-kindlekindle-willyoumarryme
First off, I purchased a Kindle 2 and am very happy with the product. It is what it is said to be and then some!
But acquiring this neat gadget is not so easy if you are in India. It makes for a neat story with a whole lot of bollywood style twists. Read: kicking the ass of the hero(me) for the whole movie and then unite with the heroine (kindle 2 global) right at the end. o-O.
Like everyone else outside the US, The hero went crazy for a few seconds when he learnt about the Kindle going international global :D He simply had to have it. Any science fiction bookworm would agree. Reading about awesome alien worlds and insane time-travel ideas on a comparably cool gadget is boundless fun.
So sit back, relax and enjoy the saga.

Aside from being extremely hot, the Kindle 2 is an amazing device. It’s form factor is surprisingly thin and E-Ink is so clear and easy on your eyes that it looks even better in the sun unlike other displays we are accustomed to. It can show a whole variety of file formats and for those it cant, one can find even more converters to get the job done. The Wispernet is great and covers almost all over the world. Via EVDO and falls back to 3G, EDGE and GPRS respectively based on the cellular service. It can charge via USB too and functions as a pen drive when plugged in.
Scene 1 -  The seduction – Geek specs
kindle-assemblydiagramIt uses a Lithium-polymer battery which does not degrade after each charge cycle. It has a processor faster then the Iphone. It has a Cellular modem that has hidden GPS features. It is extremely easy to use as it follows the minimalism  methodology set by google. It has stereo speakers albeit not a full blown MP3 player. It runs linux! and with some cool software you can easily be looking at the root prompt and happily compiling a custom kernel. It has many experimental features like a browser, picture viewer (manga), MP3 player, audio books and Text 2 Speech in addition to the million and one hacks out there in the wild due to the OS being linux. Oh and did I mention, an internet access is free.
All this in a 290 gram, super sleek, white hot body. The hero yells within ‘just take me. take me right here…’
Scene 2 – First date, her daddy is strict, no dates before marriage - Import fees and ways around
So, The hero trotted of to her home (Amazon.com) all giggly and bubbly and gobble up all the information on the new release and decided to ask her out on a date (check out the payment options).
The large import fees really made me mad and like all desi people couldn’t find it easy to pay the proper fees, need a jugaad shortcut. So I scour google with all the search trick i know. I find a few options like using one of those sites that provide you with a US address where you can ship the item and they forward it to you for a modest fee. The other one was a Chinese site selling Kindle at a much reduced price. However since kindle has a tiny cell phone for its eyes and ears I couldn't risk one of those options due to the fear of void warranty or wispernet not working.
So our hero wastes a lot of time on her from afar and finally succumbed to the Righteous ways. Marriage with the full 7 rounds. (i.e. the displayed $259 become $378.57). That is what girls do a guy’s pocket so the hero shouldn’t be surprised :)
Scene 3 – Family wants NRI - Payment options Credit card only
SpongeBob_Big_Drama_Lkindle1 Soon thereafter the first hurdle comes, You have to have a credit card which I dont have (a whole other rebellious policy I subscribe to but best left out of this post). It wiped the smile off my face. More days pass searching and looking for options. Come up with only two. Either get someone to buy it for you or get someone to buy you a gift card which can then be used to make the purchase. I was a bit worried as, like other mobile devices, they get tagged to the purchaser.
The hero doesn’t want some random NRI to marry her and bring her to him. She is too hot to be trusted with anyone else.
After some talk here and there I find another in the middle option, Get someone to buy it for you as a gift ! In such a case the kindle is unregistered and one can then register it themselves. However, that options is some what hidden and not easy to catch. There is only one option and that is gift wrapping and that costs further more money. God help our hero. However after reading a lot more text in amazon support on the not so easy on eye non E-Ink monitor I find that just select gift wrap and dont select any wrapping method and add some gift message text and you are done. The purchase is made via a trusted friend
RedHearts The heroine will stay single! All roads appear clear and our hero sings a couple of melodies. But he doesn’t know the mafia (whole shipping industry) is after her. The Mafia sends their minions all over the route. Will the heroine survive? Will they unite? The mafia is sure to be badass, what will the hero do?
Stay tuned for the next episode. Dont tell anyoneSecret telling

13 comments:

  1. Great post... :) BTW, if you have a HDFC account. They let you create a virtual credit card. wonders of technology. Yes?

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS: Could do with an invite for the widget you are running at the bottom of the page...

    ReplyDelete
  3. hey thanks, I dont get time to blog as much as I want to but you can be sure there will me more :)

    The widget is Wibiya.com and you have to register ur blog/site there. they look it over and approve. i got approved in one day.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Awesome post man !

    Please...for God's sake either switch to Wordpress or get your own domain (again install Wordpress :P).

    ReplyDelete
  5. dude stop :P

    cant find time to write posts how will I do the whole moving thing :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. hehehe seduction-

    more like peeping at the heroine naked in those pics :D

    ReplyDelete
  7. stop right there dude [embarrassed]

    you just knocked it off the G rating :DD :p :))

    ReplyDelete
  8. ROTFL

    Too good post dude! You are kicking arse and making me also shed quite a few thousands and buy it. But I shall wait to hear the climax of this love story first, who knows I may create a love triangle here ;-) !

    ReplyDelete
  9. thanks dude.. you should go for the kindle. it is awesome

    careful with love triangles man. i am a killer :p

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hello,

    I want to sell my Kindle. It's slightly used in excellent condition. I am in Mumbai. Please let me know if anyone is interested in purchasing it. Contact me on pulkitsethi1984@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  11. So did you have to pay import fees after filling Form 29/VAT 16?

    ReplyDelete