Good place to start…..the news. 
We came home for lunch today only to find out on Star News (these so very vela news company 
) talking about people seeing a UFO (unidentified flying object) in Delhi, Jaipur, and some other place that starts with a K! Outrageous!!! 
They kept on showing the same 3 second clip over and over again which you can’t even make out if its a UFO or an airplane. People who were telling over the phone in the news broadcast about what they had saw mentioned that they were outside watching this so-called UFO for three hours! If they were watching it for three hours, then why show us the same 3 second clip???? 
Not impressed. Star News always shows these really outrageous news stories — NDTV Zindabad!!!
Just when I thought I had seen enough pagalpanti for the day, I didn’t know what was going to happen to me in the latter part of the day. I came across this news story as I surfed the net. 
Rename India to Hindustan, but why???? Rename the Arabian Sea….again, but why??? Do you people not have anything else to do than to think of things to rename?? Geez, Bombay to Mumbai….Poona to Pune….Madras to Chennai….Baroda to Vadodara…:irked: Enough with the name changing and go on with your lives!!!
Now…the song. The song you are listening to is from the new movie, Apne, but why is it related to this post? Because if you listen to the words, apne toh apne hote hain (those who we consider as our loved ones, really are ours). Mere apne mere parivaar wale hain (those who are mine is my family), and what I am going to tell you from now forthright is between you, me, and the blog (don’t tell my father about anything below ). I can write this confidently because I know that my Papa will not read our blog.
My papa’s 60th birthday is this Thursday. My parents are in Dallas this week on a business trip, and Neeraj and I will pick them up from STL airport on Friday. As for my papa’s 60th birthday, the family wanted to do something for him as he always does so much for us. For many weeks, Mumma, Suraj, Neeraj, and myself had been planning trying to figure out what would be the best thing we can do for him. Well first we thought out the surprise party that we are throwing him this upcoming Saturday. Then we talked about the gift….what does Papa need?
Papa’s dear old car is falling apart…and fast. Its at 230k miles and could die any day. With the increased amount of traveling that my Papa is now doing with his job, he needs to have a nice car (and he deserves one too 
). So the family had thought it out: buying Papa a car.
First, Suraj, Neeraj, and I started researching on Papa’s favorite car: Chevrolet Impala. We looked at the 2006 models because we wanted something newer. We found a few that we wanted to see, and then decided that July 7th weekend we will actually go around to the dealers to get the right deal.
So this past Saturday, Neeraj and I woke up early, went to Suraj’s office (yes, he was working on a Saturday ), checked out his office, and went to the first dealership, Ray Dennison. I had requested a 10.15am appointment with the dealer in order to be sure to see other dealerships throughout the day (if in case it didn’t work out). It didn’t work out because the inventory of 2006 Impalas was pathetic at this dealership. High miles and just in bad shape. 
Then we went back to Suraj’s office, got his car, and went home. Suraj had breakfast, while Neeraj and I checked out more cars on the Internet. We even decided to broaden our scope (including Camrys in the search) to find out if we can find a nice 2006 or newer car for around $15k with around 15k miles. We found around 6 Impalas that fit that category at Sam Leman’s Chevy City in Bloomington, IL. So the three of us headed out in that direction.
I knew about this dealership as well because I had requested an appointment with them at 2pm, but we just happen to get there ahead time (12.30pmish). The guy that I talked to was on his lunch break so this other guy, who didn’t seem to happy with his job, tried to help us. He didn’t know any of the prices (and btw, on their internet advertisement for the cars that I saw, they mentioned that the prices listed in the ad - $15,995 wasn’t the correct price and that there was a lower price, and if you call or email, they would tell you the price). So I had done just the same a day before and asked for the real price for one of the Impalas, but I never got a response. 
So then we checked out a few, one had a crack in the back of the car, one of them was just ugly and old looking, and there was one that was maroon in color that we liked. So we asked to test drive that until we waited for the real salesman to come. Suraj turned up the engine, and it sounded weird, but whatever. This salesguy that was helping us (remember the one who didn’t seem happy with his job), got the temp license plates, and we headed out on the famous Veterans Parkway of Bloomington. The first time Suraj put his foot on the brakes (after picking up some speed), the whole car seemed to shake. So later when the salesguy asked how we liked the car, I was like, “the brakes seem to be faulty”, and then he’s like, “oh it seems the roto something-or-other needs to be turned or fixed, you can negotiate that in your price”, and I was like, “o-ok”.
After the test drive, we went back to talk to the sales manager (mr. idiot who doesn’t know how to do math). Now this guy was an idiot, who knows how he became a sales manager. So the first thing he said, “are you guys going to barter for the price or come to the real deal?” and that made me angry. Come on man, you are a used car manager and you are asking that type of question??? Idiot. Then I told him about the internet ad saying that the price quote is not right, so what is the correct price quote? He hit some numbers on his calculator and came back and said that was the correct price. So then I asked him then why that is listed in the ad that isn’t the correct price, and he said well that was wrong, and he will get that fixed.
So we went further in talking, and we told him that the brakes aren’t working properly. I also told him that I wasn’t going to buy the car until he fixed the brakes (of course! Doesn’t that seem logical, who wants to pay $16k for a car when the brakes don’t work?). So he’s like what’s your price? We said $15k out the door, and he’s like $15k with the brakes fixed? 
Yes idiot, we didn’t come to your dealership thinking that the brakes of your car wouldn’t be working 
Somebody get this guy a brain! He of course went away and had to check some numbers and so wasted our time. He comes back what seemed like a half hour and said, “No we can’t do anything about that, the best deal we can give is $17k.” Well Mr. Idiot, we left that door telling him that we could buy a new 2007 Impala with hardly any miles with that type of money……and left his dealership I hate ignorance.
Guess what…we did what we said. We bought a new 2007 Maroon Impala at a different dealership later in the day (all three of us had a headache after talking to Mr. Idiot Sales Manager so we went for ice cream @ Dairy Queen then went further car shopping ). We found this great deal, a newer car, with only 427 miles on it, and bought it for Papa.
Now Papa doesn’t know, and he won’t know until this upcoming Saturday when we will surprise him. The plan is to put the keys of the car in a big box, wrap it, and give it to him. When he opens it, then we will take him outside to his new car. He is going to be surprised We all can’t wait for that moment.
So as the song goes… apne toh apne hote hain….
Alvida. Jai Mata Di.
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Oh well…
) 
Wish us luck. 
The family and us are going to Vegas on Labor Day weekend. We have already booked our tickets ($160 r/t — good deal). The parents were here in STL yesterday evening, and we went to Harrah’s casino together (they had some coupons or free $$ that they wanted to use up before it expires). 
I am excited:!: 
