#$3.99: Renting Hindi Movies from the Indian Grocery and Never Returning Them

As a result of the inherent Indian-to-Indian courtesy, Indian grocers employ a no-pressure return policy on the Hindi movies rented out. Of course, giving that inch ends up costing them a mile, because with no motivation to return the movie, the customer tends to forget to include that into his/her list of priorities.

Let's say Dinesh rents Saathiya out to Gopal, with a "soft" rental period of 7 days. There are no late fees, so Gopal can take a relaxed approach and can watch the movie at his own pace (preferably after watching The Darjeeling Limited, since that's due back at Blockbuster tomorrow). He finally gets around to watching it with one day left on his rental period. He's fine - he can just take it back the next day, pleasantly surprising Dinesh with his responsibility.

But uh oh. He really liked the movie. Now he wants to watch the songs the next day. And now Gopal's teenage daughter expresses an interest in watching it. Oh well, just another day. Dinesh will get over it.

However, with the extra day to think, Gopal mulls over the option of recording the movie. But he can't do it today; he has errands to run. But he's free the next day. He surmises that he's late in returning the movie anyway, so another extra day is not going to kill Dinesh. He doubts Dinesh even cares.

Meanwhile, Dinesh is back at the store, apologizing to Chetan (who went to pick up some daal and squash), who now wants to rent Saathiya. Speaking in a resigned tone, Dinesh tells Chetan that it was due back two days ago. Chetan leaves slightly disappointed. A few seconds later, Dinesh remembers that the movie was rented to the notoriously-lax Gopal. He sighs, shakes his head, and goes back to re-stocking the curry paste.

Unfortunately, things get busy at the Gopal household. He ends up not being able to record the movie because he forgot to pick up some chili peppers (fortunately, you can get that at the regular grocery store, and don't have to awkwardly sneak in and out of the Indian store, hoping Dinesh's wife is at the counter instead of Dinesh). The next day, his son has a dentist appointment. His IT job has a late meeting. So
on and so forth. Days become weeks, and Gopal's possession of Saathiya becomes a distant memory.

By the time Gopal remembers to return the movie, Dinesh has already ordered another copy, and Gopal is now too embarrassed to rent future movies while Dinesh is there. For a while, he'll sweet-talk Dinesh's wife into renting him movies, but will eventually start shopping/renting at the newly-opened Indian grocery store closer to his house.

Gopal can now leave his rental-reputation behind and start fresh.