Partly Cloudy, 64°
After witnessing several students entering Spectrum India, often alone and looking sad, and emerging just a few minutes later looking happier, Officer Gary Fields decided to launch an investigation. “It’s sad,” commented Fields. “This guy has been using his storefront just to put a smile on people’s faces. This whole operation has been right under our noses for years.”
After a month-long investigation, Providence Police Department officials revealed findings that Spectrum India, a Thayer Street store known for its eclectic merchandise, is actually a front designed to allow a nice old Indian man to be really nice.
The store, which has been used to aid the proprietor in his spreading of friendliness and cheer, maintained its cover as a store for over five years before the investigation began.
David Bradshaw ’14 says he had been suspicious of the establishment since the first time he visited it. “I knew something fishy was going on when I spent 45 minutes in there and he didn’t even try to get me to buy anything. It’s like what he really wanted was to make me smile. It just didn’t make sense.”
Another customer, Dora Gooding ’13, noted that the owner of Spectrum India seemed to be completely unconcerned with selling merchandise. “I tried to leave without talking to him once but he stopped me and made me take a free bangle and tell him how my day was,” said Gooding. “That’s not how an upstanding businessman should act.”
“My friends would go in there all the time and hardly buy anything,” said Alana Farook ’13. “Then it hit me. People aren’t going in there to buy novelty tissue dispensers and scented candles. That’s just a pretense,” said Farook. “What they really want is a little pick me up and a few words of encouragement when they’re having a bad day”.
Blaine Allan ’15 admits he regularly used Spectrum India to talk to the nice Indian man behind the counter. “I would always tell my friends I needed more tiny books of famous sayings, but they knew something else was going on behind the counter. I would come back with a free bangle and a smile and they knew something was up, but I just couldn’t stop,” said Allan.
Police Department officials assured reporters that the investigation’s findings would be taken seriously and that Spectrum India would soon be run by a frugal, tight-lipped businessman.
