a slight return

There's a debate on in college, and seeing as I'm part of the committee that purports to organize the thing, I dip in and out of various facets even if my official post is that of being part of the tab team - perfect because the last thing I'm in the mood for is a horde of Delhi University debaters milling about the quadrangle; hiding in the tab room has a bit of an Upstairs/Downstairs thing going, but infinitely preferable to having to interact with the debaters themselves (I chickened out of having to head up and make an announcement to them, and delegated it to someone else after having gone up, drummed my fingers for half a minute before deciding I didn't have the voice for it).

But anyway, this isn't about the debate experience itself, but about one of the sponsors.

The thing has a load of money from its title sponsor (Corp law firm from England), but that deal went through quite late, before which we'd gained a bunch of smaller sponsors, one of whom is a stationery establishment from Chennai, a small business with a charmingly Mylaporean name.

Now, knowing the guy who did sponsorship, I wonder constantly about the lies thrown at them to make them contribute all the stationery required for the debate - along with which they've sent two of their people to set up a stall to sell notebooks (which they manufacture with self-proclaimed high-quality imported paper) with a 'pick any for Rs. 30' sign in front of it. The sponsorship guy probably promised over four hundred people, all hungry and willing to buy the notebooks; not the best idea when they're being provided with stationery for free, and DU students are hardly going to lug notebooks across the country, imported paper be damned.

Sitting in the room where they store their stock, it's the saddest thing, the absolutely saddest thing in the world to see them shut shop in the late evening, dejection across their faces, lugging all the unsold and still-bound stacks of notebooks from their stall, followed in the end by bringing down the advertising flex and carefully draping it over the stock so noone sees and is tempted to steal it.

I want to cry and hug him and tell him it'll be ok, but feel absolutely shitty about the fact that it may have been a possible misrepresentation on our part that caused them to ship a sizeable amount of stock from Chennai to Bangalore with hopes of (or so it would seem, given the quantity of stock) a fair amount of sales happening - and it's not a huge publisher or something who wouldn't bat an eyelid at not making much money in exchange for the exposure, but a little company who aren't going to get any mileage out of getting a little brand identification with the college crowd.

I can only fantasise that a twitchy smile and buying enough notebooks to last the rest of my college life will provide some succour.

But sigh, those sad sad eyes of the guy..