Comic Vir Das Draws A Quirky Parallel

Musk announced on Friday that his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold (File)

New Delhi:

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk recently created a buzz when he announced a $44-million bid for microblogging and social networking service Twitter. But on Friday, he surprised everyone by announcing that the plan has been put on hold.

As jokes and memes started pouring in, comedian Vir Das took a dig at Mr Musk by drawing a parallel between the deal and his mother’s bargaining skills at Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market.

Mr Das recalled the time when he used to go with his mother to the market as a child and how she would visit different shops to get a better deal.

He said that his mother would enter a shop, “like something, pretend not to like it too much and drive the price down”.

If the shopkeeper stood his ground, she left the shop. That’s when “other shopkeepers would see her coming and offer her better deals on stuff because they had heard the negotiation”.

Eventually, Mr Das said, his mother would return “to the same shop and buy something totally different. She just wanted the shopkeeper to admit defeat”.

He then went on to add that it was “a weird ego hassle between her and the guy who barely knew each other”, which, according to him, “the market loved watching in bitchy neighbour mode”.

Mr Das says the shopkeeper was perplexed, as were the other shopkeepers, and he was simply irritated because none of the things she was purchasing piqued his interest. He added that he wanted the market to burn down.

While concluding his note, Mr Das made the comparison with Mr Musk. He wrote, “Elon Musk is my mom with rockets.”

Here’s Mr Das’s post:

This is why I failed economics. pic.twitter.com/QRfJGr8Swx

— Vir Das (@thevirdas) May 14, 2022

Mr Das’s post has won the internet and left many users in splits.

Actress Alia Bhatt’s mother, Soni Razan, was among those who reacted to the post. She said that she remembered doing something so similar on Mumbai’s Colaba Causeway when she was a teenager.

This is all about the journey and not the destination … and I remember doing something so similar on Colaba Causeway as a teenager. So fun ????????????

— Soni Razdan (@Soni_Razdan) May 14, 2022

Another user wrote that this was something all Indian mothers did and added it was a “similar experience for so many of us and shopkeepers”.

you can well extend this as “Indian Mom”. So, eeriely similar experience for so many of us and shopkeepers.

— Indranil Mandal (@indranilmandal) May 14, 2022

One user even shared some wisdom on buying shoes.

An incident with similar tones.
If you want to buy size 8 shoes always ask for 9 or 10 first. You will get the right price because size 8 is common size therfore demands a premium. Many web sites do this…. Check it out. Non regular sizes sells less. Therefore it’s discounted.

— Ibrahim Saifuddin Sakarwala (@IbrmSaifudd5) May 14, 2022

Another user said this was “an Indian story”, and went on to narrate how they had spent “nine hours in a shopping arcade with her bargaining down two identical sets of clothes that she wanted to gift”.

Hahahaha. Quite!

This seems to be an Indian story

Once we spent NINE hours in a shopping arcade, with her bargaining down 2 identical sets of clothes that she wanted to gift. Didn’t buy finally

The aunt haggled in Fashion Street, decided not to buy when she got the price down

— Bhartiy (@BhartiyAbroad) May 14, 2022

One user also commented on an aunt who “walks into the shop, shows them the prices of something online, and has them falling over to match it”. The user added, “Ikea, Nike, Costco, Harrods – she has negotiated everywhere.”

My Masi is master at this. She literally walks into the shop, shows them the prices of something online, and has them falling over to match it. Ikea, Nike, CostCo, Harrods – she has negotiated everywhere.

— Feroza Anjum (@AnjumFeroz1) May 14, 2022

Mr Musk announced on Friday that his $44-billion deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5 per cent of users”, only to quickly add that he was “still committed to acquisition”.