Latest Muse: Owning VIP Numbers?

The latest status symbol might well be -- owning a VIP cell phone number...

If reports are to be believed, 26-year-old Amit Malhotra from Ludhiana, son of a city garment manufacturer and property dealer, spent a whopping Rs 15.50 lakhs for the big-ticket mobile number 9780000000.

Apparently, even by Ludhiana standards, this is a slightly over-the-top proposition. Nevertheless, the move has catapulted Amit to VVIP status overnight.

His father, Vijay Malhotra, was quoted as saying that this isn't something new for his son, and that he has always chosen VIP numbers as belongings. Just that this time round, he's blown up a huge amount of money on it...

Meanwhile, an unfazed Amit admitted that he borrowed money from friends and relatives so that he could buy the number but that he would repay them soon.

All said, while a part of India that is seen as rich and fat might pride itself on this kind of obscenely ostentatious spending, what about the phone company -- in this case Hutch -- which actually conducted an auction of the VIP cell phone numbers?

Amit, who had previously applied for such a number; went through a phone auction that lasted from Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening, and haggled alongside 4 other eager customers to eventually seal the big win.

No surprise then that no more details -- either about the auction, or the bidders, or the bid amounts are known yet...