Today, I had the most awkward conversation of my life. The conversation started with a rather awkward query – “Kya aapke paas bakra hai?”
I was speaking with a certain Sher Muhammad Mansuri, an online goat seller based out of Nasirabad, 20 km off Ajmer.
The man on the other end of the phone replied, “Haan, Rs 40,000-1,50,000 tak ki range mein hai.”
“Can I get the bakra delivered to New Delhi?”, I asked promptly.
“Of course,” he said, but not without a note of caution, “the total transport cost could be about Rs 7,000. The bakra has first to be taken to Ajmer for Rs. 500, after which it will have to be transported via train to New Delhi.”
“Do people actually place orders from New Delhi?”, I asked curiously. Mr Mansuri reassured, “Orders come from even far off places like Gujarat, and UP.”
As a value-for-money ( and reluctant online) shopper, I weighed the options of paying such a heavy price for the “home delivery”, besides being unsure about my purchase.
Sheepishly, I asked him about his returns policy. He promptly banged the phone right after.
Hyderabadi Jamnapaaris
I proceed to call another number in Hyderabad, of a man who goes by the moniker Munna Bhai. I ask him about the going rate of his bakras: “Rs 1 lakh onwards,” I am told. “These bakras weigh about 80 kg; these are no ordinary bakras, maidam, these are Jamnapaaris – special bakras,” the ignorant me was informed.
Unfortunately, Munna Bhai said he won’t be able to transport bakras to Delhi anymore, as most carriers have already been booked by now.
Got a Bakra? Sell it on OLX
Online marketplace OLX also has many sellers advertising their goats. From Bandra West to Lucknow to Allahabad, you can get your goat anywhere, for prices ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 60,000.
From what we’ve been observing, this Eid, the digital marketplace just goat (sorry for the pun, but we couldn’t help) hotter.
But old fashioned guys like Mazhar Sheikh dismiss the trend of online bakra shopping. Sheikh says that he’d rather go to the mandi – where the rates are cheaper by 10-20%, and there’s more variety – and buy his bakra.
Still, for all those who are digitally savvy, we say this Eid Al Adha, for goat’s sake (we pun, yet gain), give online shopping a go!
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