As I sat browsing through Rediff.com's collection of soft toys, an image of a prophetic Jamiroquai kept whining "the future's made of virtual insanity" in my head. "Damn, those guys were right," I thought, "what on earth am I doing?"

I needed a reality check, so I called my girlfriend, Naomi, and chatted with her to reassure myself that this was what I wanted to do. It was. We live in different cities (she in Bombay and I in Bangalore) and I was leaving the country on Feb 12th to go back to college in the US. So we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day a little earlier, on Feb 7, so that way at least I'd still be in India.

But how could I make sure she would receive my gifts on the appointed date? Someone suggested I try shopping online, and I decided to take that advice. It would be my first time and, in the end, it was good for us both.

Tales of how unreliable it is and the possibility of fraudulent shopping on the Internet caused a flutter of butterflies in my stomach as I opened my browser and began navigating my way through the multitude of gift items that dotcoms have to offer.

Initially, I thought of flowers, chocolates, jewellery, soft toys, perfume, books, music and the assorted collectibles that my sister likes to call "gift thingys". I liked the idea of buying a perfume such as Burberry's Weekend or CK's Romance but, after a few minutes of browsing, found that these are too expensive in India. Likewise, jewellery too bit the dust as I couldn't see exactly what it would look like in reality, after examining it on a screen.

You also can't tell what a flower arrangement really looks like, but then, how far wrong can you go with flowers, right? In the past, I had used Phool Time (through Cafemumbai.com) and they did a good job. I like Phool Time because they are actual florists and not some random website that sends flowers; consequently they are far cheaper and probably better than other online options for flora.

Going back to them the second time wasn't as perfect because they forgot to let me know that they had received my order for, as their Web site boasts, "12 long stemmed roses arranged beautifully and wrapped in cellophane." I had used my Visa credit card to the tune of Rs. 300 and my worst nightmares of credit card fraud came back to haunt me.

Since Naomi and I have similar tastes and ideologies (thank God for small mercies!), selecting a book and music were easy. I decided on E. M. Forster's A Passage To India, a wonderful book about irreconcilable cultural differences between Indians and the British. FirstandSecond.com had a gorgeous looking hardcover edition of the book for Rs. 630, which I thought was slightly pricey but decided that it was definitely worth it. For music, I went to Easybuymusic and spent Rs. 545 on the collection that every Beatles fan must have, 1.

I was perhaps a bit hasty here, for I later found that Rediff.com has an offer where you can buy one CD and get another one free. Shoot.

Still, so far so good. I was having surprising luck and thought, "This e-commerce thing isn't so terrible after all."

Nevertheless, there was something missing. A slight 'cutesy' touch, perhaps? I explored the idea of an alphabet pendant or heart-shaped chocolates but couldn't quite make up my mind. I was a bit stuck for ideas and my eyes were screaming for a break from the monitor when I found just the thing at Rediff.com. They have these very cute heart-shaped scented candles for Rs. 155, which seemed absolutely perfect. After all, what girl doesn't like candles?

Then, on a whim, and also to make up for not being able to afford a perfume, I succumbed to the call of an Oriflame gift pack (also at Rediff) worth Rs. 315, that contained deodorant, shampoo and powder. Later, Naomi told me she was quite excited about my buying her beauty products! I hope you guys are all taking notes.

By this time, I was feeling a bit edgy about using my credit card any more. To cover all my bases, I thought I would try sending a cheque to Rediff. And the hiccups began. First, they billed me in US dollars; which would have been okay except that I was determined not to abuse my credit card any longer. Then, when I eventually did send them the cheque, I committed the cardinal sin of addressing it to 'Rediff.com India Pvt. Ltd' instead of 'Rediff.com India Ltd.' They were insistent that I make out another cheque. Of such trivialities are the best laid plans laid waste. Sigh…

To their credit, Rediff.com responded very well and, after a flurry of emails, sorted everything out. And that was it. It was out of my hands now.

I switched off my computer and rose, congratulating myself for a successful ecommerce expedition, feeling a bit like Robert Frost traipsing down the road less travelled.

To my delight and yes, surprise as well, it all worked out beautifully. Rediff.com's wonderful packaging quite charmed Naomi (though she suggested they don't use so much newspaper…e-commerce section, are you reading this?) as she delighted in removing layer after layer of wrapping. The Phool Time delivery man was persistent in that he insisted he could only hand it over to Naomi herself (she lives in a hostel). He even waited for 45 minutes outside the hostel while she finished her lecture to deliver them in person...This, according to my girlfriend, was "very cute."

The only hitch was Easybuymusic who phoned ahead to say they were bringing something over, thus ruining the surprise. Obviously, not all the lights were on upstairs in that enterprise.

So, smiles all around in the end. Naomi was thrilled, which made me blissful, and the dotcoms finally had revenue that wasn't from advertising. I had made my contribution to sustaining India's IT industry and captured the heart of the love of my life in the process too.

Jamiroquai be damned, this is win-win all around.

Postscript: If you too would like to try online shopping, any of the sites I used will serve your purposes. There is also Fabmart and, if you are abroad and have dollars to spend in India, you can use Aashirwad or Indiagifthouse, both of which deliver to most Indian cities. Finally, if you need help, suggestions or advice on how to deal with idiosyncratic internet companies, you can email this 'veteran' of e-commerce at ropaul@davidson.edu

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