Underground shopping

I just got back from DVD shopping. I'm not always in the mood to flip through row upon row of unorganised movies, but today I was. I kind of like going there justfor the atmosphere. I go to a place called Electronic City, and there is a huge section of the basement that is devoted to DVDs. Thousands and thousands. Of course these are all pirated DVDs so they aren't legal. But that's just a technicality. Occasionally there are raids and all the vendors will throw sheets over the DVD trays, maybe shove them under a counter, or pulls drapes closed around their stall. Yep, so ingeniously hidden.

 

Lately, they've gotten more professional with their clandestine operations. Some shops have constructed narrow passages that lead to hidden rooms, at one place you even have to move a hanging poster to find the entrance. Other shops have almost nothing on display, but when you walk by, they offer DVDs, and when you show interest they lead you down a long winding corridor into the bowels of the building, where the walls are lined with inconspicuous, padlocked wooden doors. Behind one of these doors will be the merchant's stockpile of movies.

 

So I bought eight (grand total: about $7.50). Now usually the quality is perfect, it's only the brand new movies that aren't great. But usually still passable. Today was not very successful, only 6 out of 8 movies are fine. I will return The Interpreter because the beginning has been cut off and about 20 minutes of the movie is missing. And The War of the Worlds must also go back because it is in Russian. With no option for the original English. Sigh.... Oh well, out of the hundreds of DVDs we've bought, only a handful have been bad. Just bad luck today.

 

Okay, back to the "secret" movie cavern I go!