NOTE: The following post has been written for a contest hosted by BaggOut. The theme of the contest so tickled my imagination that I just had to take part!. I hope you’ll enjoy the post!
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Dilwale Discount Le Jaenge
‘it has happened for the first time,
In some seventeen, eighteen years,
that which was unseen, unknown
Has appeared before my eyes.
It has happened for the first time
In some seventeen, eighteen years…’ wrote Simran in her diary.
As she read these words aloud, they conjured up dreams and visions that had started tickling her heart-strings ever since she had become aware of the baggout.com.
Of course, even the thought of online shopping was taboo in her home. She knew very well that her father, Chaudhary Baldev Singh, would never allow her to shop online. But the lure of the products she saw on baggout was too strong. And all her friends kept on talking about it too and encouraging her to try it once. Simran knew she probably never would dare. But that didn’t stop her from closing her eyes and losing herself in dreaming about all the things she could buy from BaggOut. She saw herself dressed in a cute white mini-skirt that she had seen on BaggOut and twirling in rain, singing and dancing with abandon.
She decided to seek the help of her mother. Maybe her mother could persuade her father to let her shop online. If only for one little thing.
“Only once, Ma, only once, please,’ she urged, after revealing to her mother the secret desires rising in her heart.
“Chutki,’ the mother turned to speak to her younger daughter instead, ‘our Simran has gone mad.’
“But why mother? Why can’t I shop online?”
“Simran, you are wasting your time arguing with me. I won’t say anything, but your father would never agree.”
Simran knew that well, of course. But she also knew how to win her father’s favour. So early next morning, before even her father woke up, she starting singing prayers in the small prayer room in their home. Her singing woke up her family, as it was intended to do. Her father smiled with pride to see his daughter praying so devoutly.
“I have not failed. I have not failed, Simran’s mother. Even in these bad times, I have kept culture alive in my children’s heart,” he said.
Simran got up to seek her father’s blessings.
“God bless you, my child. You have made me very happy. I want to gift you something, whatever you desire,’ said Chaudhary Baldev Singh to Simran.
“Father,” began Simran, “I want to buy a book. But it is not available in the market. All my friends have bought it online. Can I also buy it online? Please father? Just one book? Can’t you please let me buy one small book using my own pocket money?”
Chaudhary Baldev Singh didn’t like the request. But he didn’t want to go back on his words either by not giving Simran what she wanted.
“Okay,” he said, “but only one book. I am trusting you on that. Don’t deceive me by buying anything else.”
“Oh, thank you, father!” said Simran, hugging her father.
So that day, Simran went to her friend’s house. And at the advice of her friends who all gathered around her, she made an account on baggout.com. She knew well that her father had only given her the permission to buy one book. So, without wasting any time, she clicked at the “Ongoing Deals” button on top of the BaggOut’s home page. And then clicked at “Book” to check out which websites were offering deals on books. Among the options that came up, she checked out the deals being offered by Flipkart. She found a deal offering 50% discount on books. Without wasting any time, she clicked on the deal. The deal got activated and led her straight to Flipkart’s website. From there, she bought the book she had been wishing to read since long. She didn’t have a credit card as even if her father had allowed her to purchase one book, he would never have allowed her the liberty to use his credit card online. So she placed the order for her book by using the Cash On Delivery method.
After placing her order, she was about to get up from her chair, but her friends stopped her.
“Look around a little more, you’d love it!” one of her friends insisted.
“Just browse around a little more at BaggOut. See, not just discount, you can even get cashback at your purchases here!” another persuaded.
Simran knew she shouldn’t linger, but she couldn’t help it either. Her attention was caught. Dresses, accessories, gadgets, books, cosmetics, and so on stared at her from the computer’s screen. She couldn’t help but look around. And the more she saw, the more things she fell in love with and absolutely wanted to buy. And then, the discounts and cashbacks being offered at BaggOut were just too tempting to leave without exploring. She kept on checking out one deal after the other, and time passed on. And when she had seen enough of deals, the “Trending Products” page caught her attention and she kept on scrolling to see what was trending and what other people were buying. And the result was, her heart became full of desires to make more online purchases, and she was more than two hours late in returning to her home.
“Oh no!” Simran cried when she realized how late she was. “My father would be so angry. I should never have lingered on for so long! I should never have listened to you!”
“Don’t worry, Senorita,” Raj, who had also come there, said. “In such big-big countries, such small-small things keep on happening You come with me, I’ll drop you home in no time.”
And for once, Raj managed to do as he promised. His car did not break down and nothing else happened to cause any other delay.
“By the way, I liked that dress too. It’s great. Will you buy it?’ he asked over the way.
“I can’t. We buy our clothes from my father’s friend. I can’t shop for my dresses online. But it’s okay. And I don’t mind it. My parents know best what’s good for me.”
“So you will wear whatever dresses your parents get you?”
“Yes,” said Simran, in a firm voice. But in her heart, doubts were already rising. She had no intention of rebelling against her father, but she couldn’t forget all that she had seen on BaggOut either. She had fallen in love with the things, deals and offers she had seen there, and she knew it.
She knew her father would be enraged. But she couldn’t help it. Her heart was caught. And she couldn’t think of anything else now.
It was late at night. Simran and her mother and sister sat talking about all that Simran had seen on BaggOut. Simran switched on her computer and started showing her mother and sister all the deals, offers and trending products.
None of them noticed Chaudhary Baldev Singh standing at the door and watching them, his eyes getting bigger and redder with rage.
“I told you not to betray my trust. I told you, you can only buy one book from an online store! You broke your promise! I’ll take you to our village now. You will get married to my friend’s son and live in the village and never look at any website after this, ever!” thundered Simran’s father.
True to his words, he forced his entire family to lock up their home in Delhi and move to their ancestral home in a village in Punjab.
Once there, Simran found herself surrounded by many people. But her heart and mind remained filled with the desire to shop some more from baggout.com. If nothing else, she at least wanted to buy the dress that Raj had said he liked. He liked it, she loved it and kept on imagining herself wearing it.
Her father suspected Simran’s thoughts and ordered her mother to forbid Simran to even think of internet.
Simran’s mother went to Simran and said, “When I was young, I wore and used the things my parents bought for me. My brothers got the pocket-money and were allowed to shop for themselves. But I wasn’t. And I accepted it. But when you were born, I promised myself that I would never force you to give up your desires. My daughter will have everything she dreams of, I had promised to myself. She will not sacrifice her wishes for anyone. But I was wrong, Simarn. I was wrong. It is impossible for girls to follow their desires. So I come to beg you to stop thinking about online shopping. Stop thinking about it, child.”
“Yes, mother,’ said Simran. ‘I will do as father wishes.’
And Simran was ready to sacrifice her dreams and desires for the wishes of her father. And she would have done it too, had Raj not arrived there, with his laptop. He had missed Simran and realized how much he loved her.
Simran was overjoyed to see Raj there. She was even more overjoyed to see his laptop.
“Take me away, take me away from here, Raj. Nobody cares for my wishes here. Nobody would care for our love either. My father would never let me marry you, especially because you do all your shopping online! Take me away with you!”
“Shh, Simran,” said Raj, comforting her. “I don’t want to take you away without your father’s permission. And you don’t worry. Just trust me. I’ll make your father realize how wrong he is about online shopping.”
Raj became friends with Simran’s fiance and started living in his house. He came to meet Simran every night at the rooftop. There the two sat for hours together and browsed online shopping websites. Raj even ordered a dress for Simran, using a discount deal being offered on BaggOut. He did not just get a 40% discount on it, but also cashback from baggout.com.
BaggOut My Stream
Even Simran’s father liked the dress. He also noticed how happy Simran was looking that day. He was pleased to see Simran happy. But things turned bad when the delivery slip of the dress flew with the wind from Simran’s room and landed just before Choudhary Baldev Singh. He was filled with rage. Soon, all the truth came out before him. He realized it was all Raj’s doing. He ordered Raj to leave immediately.
“I told you so,” said Simran, crying before Raj. “I told you to take me away. I told you here nobody would understand our desires. I told you.”
“Shh, Simran,” Raj comforted her again. “We must do as our elders say. They care about us and know what is good for us. They know best. So what happened if I got 40 percent discount on this dress. Maybe your father would have got better discount at some shop. So what happened if I also got 150 rupees cashback. So what happened that I could look at hundreds of dresses online to choose the perfect dress for you. Maybe your father would have found better in a shop. He is our elder. We must do as our elders say.” Saying this, Raj turned and was about to take himself and his laptop away.
“No, no!” Simran kept on crying.
When Raj reached the railway station, Simran’s fiance and his men were waiting for him. They fought with Raj and beat him severely.
Simran’s mother heard of this fight. She took Simran to the railway station. The rest of the family came too. They stopped the fight.
The train arrived and Raj climbed into it. In his hand was the dress he had bought for Simran. He kept on looking back at Simran.
And Simran kept on crying, looking at him and the dress in his hand. She wanted to run to him. But her hand was held by her father.
“Let me go, Bauji. Please let me go!” begged Simran.
Chaudhary Baldev Singh kept on looking towards Raj. He looked at the dress in Raj’s hand. Raj’s words echoed in his mind. He finally realized how wrong he was about the online shopping. He released Simran’s hand.
“Go,” he said. “Go, Simran, go! I was wrong. You can’t shop better than on baggout.com. Go Simran, go, do your shopping!”
And Simran ran. She ran towards Raj. Raj leaned out of the train, extended his hand and pulled Simran into the train.
The two got married soon after and shopped on BaggOut happily ever after.
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To all those who are fan of the movie Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jange, please forgive me for committing the sin of twisting the story of such a beautiful film! Honestly, I am one of you too and absolutely love this movie!
Anyway, now that I am done with turning and twisting the story to meet my purpose, and also done with shaking my head at myself for committing this sacrilege, I think I better pull this stupid grin off my face, bury my outrageous head under the hood of a tech blogger and tell you plainly and simply what BaggOut is all about.
Baggout.com is a website from where you can take advantage of discount deals going on in all the shopping websites popular in India. Baggout.com by itself does not sell any product. Instead, it showcases the products being sold by other websites like Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra etc. And makes available in one space all the discount coupons being offered by these sites, the various products that are trending on these sites, and on top of this, also offers different cashback schemes to its users.
The interface of baggout is clean and simple. When you login at the website, you are presented with a feed of the trending products. On the very top of the page are two buttons. The first one leads to all the deals currently on offer, and the second button leads to the page showing the latest trending products. On the main My Stream page and on the Trending Products page, one can easily see what others are buying. What’s unique about Baggout.com is that it allows users to see what other users are buying. And from the homepage, one can even search for the purchases of a particular user and see all that he or she has bought or liked. That is, if a friend or a family member uses baggout.com, one can easily see what he or she has bought or liked, and use that info to decide our own purchases, or purchase of gifts for them.
There are different ways one can browse for stuff on Baggout. One can just select a deal and then browse for items on the chosen retailer website. Or one can browse trending items, items favoured by a particular person, or items displayed in the three categories : Women, Home and Men.
Baggout makes available ongoing discount deals and Cashback offers for most major shopping websites in India, like Flipkart, Jabong, Myntra, ebay, Yepme, Amazon, Yebhi etc.
