Hey all! Its good to be back.
Well, what I'm about to present to you is a very interesting story. It may sound a little far-fetched, but believe me, every word of it is true.
This happened to me in the 9th grade, about 6 or 7 years ago, and I can still picture the whole incident quite vividly.
Back in the 9th grade, I was a typical lad doing the usual things a 9th grader does. I used to watch random channels on tv, I used to watch cartoons, blah blah blah. And there's this Anime cartoon called "Dragonball Z" and I was totally addicted to it. And when I say addicted I mean "ADDICTED"! Its this cartoon about people from outer space trying to take over the earth, and the fight to save the earth, and much more. As a consequence of the addiction, I downloaded pictures, videos, games and absolutely anything related to DBZ from the net onto my computer. I visited every legal and illegal CD/DVD store in the city to see if I can get all the episodes. I had to do this because the operators wouldn't air the whole show on TV, they would just stop it halfway through (and that, I found, was very irritating). I actually called up Cartoon-Network-India and complained!
Anyway, so my hunt for episodes reached a dead end as I had searched out every corner of the city and as expected, most people had not even heard of the words "Dragonball Z". And downloading episodes off the net with a dial-up internet connection..PAH! It'd take 3 hours just to download one episode that was 20 minutes long. So I decide to take my search to the next level.
I'm sure you all have heard of the website WWW.EBAY.COM. Well if you haven't, go visit it, check it out, and you'll understand the rest of my story (come back and read my story, please don't get stuck on that website). Well, basically its an online auctioning website, where you can buy and sell goods and stuff. Its pretty simple, you search for what you want, if they have what you're looking for, then you can go ahead and click on the item and buy it. Once you've confirmed your order and made your payment, the pack will be shipped to you within a few days time.
Yes, you're right, I went to www.ebay.com. I searched for "Dragonball Z full episodes" and I got a whole lot of results! I was One step closer to my dream come true! Now, let me rewind a little bit. When I visited www.ebay.com, by default, it took me to the AMERICAN EBAY WEBSITE. And I had no idea!
So I clicked on one of the relevant items. And clicked on "BUY NOW". It asked me to sign up. So I made myself an account and logged in. And I bought the item for "100$". A hundred dollars in Indian currency was about 4000 bucks. I had saved up only about 2500. Anyway, I thought I'll wait a few days and MAGICALLY LET THE DBZ EPISODES ARRIVE AT MY DOORSTEP.
I waited for 7 days. Nothing happened. The only thing that happened was, I got a warning from ebay which roughly said "UNPAID ITEM NOTIFICATION". I checked out the email. Apparently, Ebay wanted me to pay for the "DBZ FULL EPISODES" that I bought online from the seller. I had the seller's email id and his name. I got them from ebay.
->So I emailed this guy who lived in San Diego, roughly saying
"Dear Sir.Michelle,
I'm a poor kid from India, all I have is a computer and a television. I have only Rs.2500 (63$). I wont be able to pay you a 100$ (Rs.4000). Will that be alright?"
->I got a reply which went something like
"Just pay me how much ever you can. I'm not worried about the money. And make sure you pay me in dollars."
->And I replied saying
"Dear Sir.Michelle,
I do not have any cash in dollars. I'll have to send the money in rupees. Is there any other way out?"
->And the reply was
"You can go to WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER and request them for a conversion of currency.
And stop calling me Sir, I'm a lady."
->I replied
"Oh my god, I'm sorry Michelle! Damn, I'm dumb. Well I went to the western union money transfer place and they said that I was too young. I had to be 18 or above for a money conversion."
----THAT WAS A WHITE LIE----(I'm sure you noticed).
->You wouldn't believe what happened next! THE REPLY I GOT WAS
"Oh you poor little thing, you tried so hard. You really want these episodes don't you? Well, I've decided to send the dvds to you free of cost...blah blah blah"
->And I was like
...FREE OF COST, FREE OF COST, FREE OF COST!!!
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"
You know the drill. I went to school the next day, I told all my friends about what happened. They didn't believe a word. I kept telling them the story over and over again. They thought I was an idiot for having so much unwanted faith in the stranger from San Diego. Anyway, I was fixed upon my opinion.
A couple of weeks passed by, and my buddies started making fun of me, and I was beginning to get pissed off. I thought..."How much longer?...Can't wait anymore." It was a test of my patience.
Two days later, I get a baggage in my postbox, roughly the size of a tiny cat. I knew what it was...MY HEART WAS POUNDING! I WAS AT A LOSS FOR WORDS! SO IT WAS TRUE! HAD THIS REALLY HAPPENED?!
I took off the cello-tape slowly, tore the paper pieces apart. And I finally opened. For me, it was like a manifestation of a blinding bright light spreading out from the box, as if I was given new life. It was a breathtaking moment for me.
For a few minutes, I stood there in my room, still stunned by the sudden shock. And after it had sunk in, I went and popped in one of the DVDs into my DVD-player. I saw a whole bunch of icons in the DVD.
EUREKA! EUREKA! I FINALLY HAVE ALL THE EPISODES NOW!
Yes, it was true. I finally achieved success. My hunt was over now...
HEY, Wait a minute! What happened to the kind stranger lady from San Diego?!
Aah, forget it. Whatever man, I got all the episodes, that's what matters.
So that was "The Story of the incident with the lady from San Diego".
Stay tuned you all!
"War would end only if the dead could return."
