26407383 for life

one of the first things you notice after a few days of driving around over here is that all over the city "beanbag" or beanbags" followed by an 8 digit telephone number will be spray painted all over the place.



on our usual routes between the hotel and the office we see the above number mostly -- the other expats can tell you I'm fond of shouting out '26-40-73-83!" a couple of times during our drive. sometimes we see, 32668802, but that's rarer. when we took a trip last weekend down by the gateway, we would see other numbers painted on the walls.

so I got to thinking what these numbers mean. it's obvious they are phone numbers, but why? and why bean bags? you see them sprayed usually on or near construction sites, or on the temporary metal siding walls put up around construction sites. so I wondered if perhaps beanbags were a byproduct of construction here. Like, maybe they have to dig a lot of holes, and they fill the bean bags with the gravel.

and then I thought that perhaps it is the case that these numbers are marking gang territory. you often see it where one bean bag number will be crossed out and replaced with a rivals'. makes sense, especially coupled with the fact that different numbers show up in different neighborhoods.

so I wondered out loud what it really meant and Gina said "what? they sell bean bags".


right. it's that's simple.


well it seems that it is that simple. This afternoon Godwin (the AP version of Daniel) was riding with us to go look at an apartment, so I asked him what the deal was. He says they sell beanbags. “you want me to call them? I’ll call them.” So I give the number I’ve memorized by now (26-40-73-83!) and he calls them up, asks them where they are (West Bandra next to the stereo store, which is about as precise as addresses get over here), how much the bean bags cost (Rs 2000), and if we can stop in and see them (sure, but we didn’t).

Godwin says they send people out in the middle of the night to spray “bean bags” and their phone number all over town.

turns out Gina was right. But that just leaves us with a new mystery: how is this effective advertising? And if it is, THEN WHY DO ONLY BEAN BAG STORES DO IT?!!

It makes no sense to me. But I’m glad that in our (hopefully) new neighborhood I see 26407383 on the walls.

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UPDATE: i just googled "bombay beanbag" and I found my number.



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UPDATE AGAIN: i started thinking how cool it would be if 26407383 was prime. turns out it wasn't so i googled "26407383 factor" to see how it factored. what i got instead was this page advertising dolphin beanbags (control-F 26407383 to find it on the page):

Do you want to relax -- Dolphin bean bags are available in exotic colours and materials and a variety of sizes. They are ultra lightweight and sturdily built with triple stitches. The bean bags are made of high density polystyrene beans and are 100 % washable. They come with a unique three years warranty. Dolphin bean bags have a style to suit everyone from kids to the not so young. Available at leading furniture malls. Delivery possible all over India. For bookings, contact 9820439364 / 26407383.




....i think I'm on to something big here.


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now...now I'm starting to get obsessed.

here's a couple of other beanbag numbers, one of them being the rival 32668802 number. I'm totally starting a flickr photo pool for these numbers.