I am yet to come across a shopowner as Mr.Srinivasan of Sri Krishna Videos at Gokul Arcade in Adyar. Its very unlikely of a Chennai shopkeeper to treat you as his most-prized customer. And to value a commitment.

Shameel was able to compose an original score for our movie and even figured editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, with a little help from Shom. We were very excited when we got the fade-in effects right and the film completed in 00:00:59 seconds. Our first attempt had created a film that last an excruciating 00:01:13 seconds. And stripping down 14 seconds hurt. Bad. Editing a 3hr Indian feature must be very painful.

Once done, we headed for Lattice Bridge Road in the hope of contacting a Software Pro who could burn us our movie onto DVD. The problem with shopkeepers in Chennai is - that they answer 'Yes' only. If they don't do or have something, they usually don't reply. Sometimes, they say 'No'. But don't ever expect an answer to 'Can you suggest someone who..'. We tried four shops that advertised DVD copying, and in two of them, the proprietors didn't know what we were talking about.

That's how we headed to Gokul Arcade, because this place houses some of the few hi-tech shops in Adyar. Mr. Srinivasan wasn't available but his assistant called him up and we agreed on the price and time to collect the DVD.

At the appointed hour, I returned to his shop. The man was burning a second DVD in the hope of getting the audio right. Somehow, the video was getting saved, but the audio was not getting stored on the disc. The man tried everything, as I patiently watched. He called up his technology-savvy friends. Installed two new softwares to enable some features. But to no avail. Four hours after I had requested for burning my movie onto a DVD, I had the movie minus the audio.

I was angry, but kept quiet. He finally told me that the problem was that I had saved the audio in 32-bit format. Saving in 16-bit format would get me the sound as well. But the deadline was in 15mins. And rendering itself would take another 30mins !

So I decided to submit the movie minus the audio. I was obviously not gonna pay him the decided price (the work was not complete !). So I enquired about how much I owed him, preparing myself for an argument. And he replied - Zilch. I was really not expecting that. He had burnt the movie onto my DVD. Ok, it was minus the audio. But the audio didn't matter - there were no dialogues. It was just part of the background score. He told me he couldn't be paid for a job not done completely !

I was impressed with his service guarantee. He finally agreed on accepting money equivalent to the price of the second DVD that he had burnt in the hope of getting the audio saved correctly. He let me keep that second DVD.

I told him I'd come back if the Ability Foundation people allowed me a late submission tomorrow. That way I could save the audio in 16-bit format and try burning onto the DVD again.

If you're honest and true to your work, the rewards are forthcoming. Atleast, it works like that for me. And I suppose its like that for him too.

The Ability Foundation extended the deadline by one day. I was definitely going back to Mr. Srinivasan.