An affair to remember....

A rage was about to kindle…

Of books and rolls to handle…

Newspapers and journals alike…

Mp3, browser and the like…

With Wifi and 3G…

On a palmtop that was mine to be…

Amazon and eBay, I was on…

To buy this toy, cute and coy…

A midget of a gadget…

Dear God,

What began as eye candy turned into manic obsession. I just couldn't get over the widget. The Kindle had certainly taken a toll. Routine had been redefined with research and more research of the ethereal beauty. Monochrome albeit, she was worth a thousand millihelens. Of course, the tryst was not devoid of the skeptics who pried for comic relief out of my pursuit.

For a brief while, I had to weigh options too. A week-long scout brought the scuffle down to the Kindle, the iPad, the Nook and Mother India’s Wink.

Round 1

The iPad is an all-rounder with the ease of Touch. At 32,000/-, 16 GB memory, fingerprint-proof, 3G & WI-Fi, ability to download thousands of apps and more, it appeared to be the clear favorite. What did it in was that it is not exclusive. Technology will die its death sooner than later with gadgets providing all-round performance. If the death has to be slower, exclusivity has to be maintained. Okay, now that is my philosophy. So, the K3 moved onto the next round.

Round 2

The aesthetic Nook, a cousin, came with similar features but also had the flexibility of user-replaceable battery. Wonder why the K3 should be deprived of this feature. Moreover, the Nook catered to the “colour-crazy”. The K3 bashed on, regardless. The Text-to-speech, a feature of the K3 is reminiscent of Chitti narrating a bed-time story to put us to sleep. I am a big fan of ‘Black and white’, a quality that is lacking even in the way we lead our lives.

Round 3

A certain broad reminded me of the Wink from namma Bengaluru. Apart from its ability to support a multitude of formats, 15 languages, expandable memory (up to 16 GB), it’s biggest selling point is it is Indian. A snapshot of this slick looker on the net promotes content in Hindi too. I had almost made up my mind. The price was slightly higher and the K3 felled the Wink down. Again!

And so, the K3 won the title. From eye candy, it was soon to become my arm candy. But wait, the romance had just begun. I now had to work on the logistics – costs (esp. Shipping, Customs, VAT etc). Ordering it online from Amazon.com presented with difficulties. I didn’t have a credit card and that required me to create some Netcafe account that converted my Debit card into a temp credit card. That sounded complicated.

Chuck it! I said and sought a friend’s help with eBay. He explained a fairly simple but multi-layered procedure to ship the product home. It involved a third party website that was able to pick the product from within the US and shipping it home. He seemed to have a way with the Customs’ fees too. Looked cool! So we started working on the MRP, conversion, freight etc and prospective sellers on eBay with the best rate. After a productive effort combing the enterprise, we firmed up a couple of sellers and left them messages seeking clarifications.

It was the end of the day and I still hadn’t placed the order. I knew a harrowing and frustrating weekend was on the cards. Patience hadn’t done any good to anyone, me neither. I slept little, got onto eBay and found another prospect with a better price. Since I was a first timer, didn’t make sense to leap. So I messaged this good friend for an opinion. Obviously, to expect that the world was up at a time I was, was unwise by a mile. He didn’t respond. It was killing!

And then your divine intervention got me an SMS from another good friend reporting an advertisement in TOI on the K3. Yes! K3 could be procured here too. Yes! Yes! Yes! I love my India. So I called them to place the order. Customer Service of TOI hardly exists. I required a few clarifications and I was put through the misery of speaking to 3 different supervisors with hardly any knowledge of terms like Whispernet. In fact, one of them: “What Whispernat?” One other had the cheek to tell me that newspapers can’t be downloaded, that ‘Whispernat’ was Amazon’s ‘Internat’ etc. I gave up, hung up and called them again, this time to place the order without the questions.

Day 3 and I get a call from Customer Support for address verification. The K3, my own Kindle 3 is not far away, I guess!

Dear God, I will keep updating you on the review as it happens….