Was a perfect day for shopping at Oxford Street in London.Karthik,Bhasker and I were walking down the road when we came across this shop which had a sign saying "For Rent" but it was crowded.There was this guy standing on a raised platform with a mike selling stuff.It looked like an auction so we stepped in "just to see what is happening".

The products being "sold" were an Ipod,SLR,games and loads of other stuff that any person would wanna buy at such cheap rates."Who will wanna give me 10 pounds for what's on my mind" is how it all begun and everyone in the crowd was ready to give him 10 pounds including us.

This guy has a set of people who work for him,standing as potential buyers in the crowd.He starts selling all the good products like the Ipod first for just 10 pounds and you would have guessed by now that the people he gives those products to,are people he has planted amongst the crowd.Now the crowd is all excited and wants an Ipod or a camera.Then he says again "Who is ready to pay 20 pounds for what's on my mind.You have 30 seconds."and then he would crack a joke about his wife while he collects the money and gives all of them a blue card which means there is something guaranteed for them at the end and this goes on and on as more and more people fall victim to this...

It was a brilliant modus operandi.Soon people were running to ATMs to withdraw cash and the bidding reached crazy levels of 175 pounds and all that.When we lost 25 pounds itself we realised this is some big time fraud happening and we stood there watching as others fell victims to his amazingly convincing sales pitch and jokes.Some time later we walked out feeling terrible that we were so gullible and got swindled so easily.Ya but for the 25 pounds that we had paid we didn't walk out empty handed.We got a crappy walkman,an organiser which can store maybe 20 numbers and a crappy electronic shaver.We threw everything in the dustbin and convinced ourselves that we are not one of the few who had lost a couple of hundred pounds.

Later we heard from a person owning a shop in the street that those are Irish men who get into any shop which is up for rent and start selling and then just vanish with all the money.Everyone knows about them but there is nothing much that can be done as more and more fall victims to their brilliant scheme.

So all you people out there reading my blog,next time you see something like this,stand and watch the fun but don't fall for it!!!

My latest sketch of the God Aiyappa