Roving Eye — Pune

Bitter-sweet taste of winning
It was meant to be a fun night. Lots of people, lots of noise, lots of bonhomie. The casino night at Ten Downing Street sponsored by Coke and organised by Matrix, an event-management group, was going great guns and everyone was having a wonderful time, till the prizes became an issue. The ones with the maximum number of counters would win a two-day holiday in Goa.

That was when some people got nasty. At not winning the much coveted Two Days. They believed that they had the maximum number of counters and when they approached the organisers, they were told that the prize was already given away. Says Raneev, management trainee at Coke, “The reason these people did not get the trip to Goa was because we had stipulated that the person to have the maximum number of counters at a particular time would be the winner. We could not wait indefinitely for people to collect their counters. We announced that we’d be counting the counters at 1 a.m. and this guy who flung his counters at me turned up at 1.30 a.m..”

One reason could be that the announcement was not heard as Raneev himself admits. “TDS is a very interactive place. So it’s possible that some people may have not heard our call.” Well, seems like the night ended as it does at most casinos, with that bitter-for-some, sweet-for-others, taste in the mouth.