It was already 9:37 in the morning. Well, I should not blame 'The Hunt For The Red October', the movie which ended at around 1.00 in the morning, for my delay this morning. Yeah! shame on me.....I mean, I reach office everyday around 9:30. If you are an office goer you must think this blogger(me) is a humble guy. Well if you really wanna think so, I wont force you to think otherwise because you can think anything you like and you have full freedom over it but let me disclose that my office starts at 7:30 in the morning. Isnt that 'WOW' !! Might be for you, but not for the lazy ass like me.
Anyway, as I was walking towards my office as I was late(typical) suddenly from the footbridge I heard a screeching sound which came from the opposite direction. Lot of curious heads turned towards the source of the sound immidiately. I got really scared by the sound and my heart started beating faster as I was afraid I might see a dirty accident scene. Slowly I moved close to the railings of the footbridge so that I could take a look.
What I saw is a Swift hit a Bike. The biker was lying on the road. Suddenly I started thinking about a typical scenario which I saw manier times before....like the crowd would gather around the place. There would be a chaos because of the accident. The biker would attack the other driver, the driver would try to prove that the biker was rash driving, some amongst the crowd would take the ownership of giving justice to any of them, depending on the severity of the situation crowd might block the road, which might lead to a strike (at times), then things might just get political, some more damages, fire etc. Even sometimes police come and tries to make a settlement amongst three parties(Police, Driver 1, Driver2) about the damage that has been caused.
I guess that's what usually happens right ?
But Chennai surprised me again. Thank God that none got injured. It was a mild collision. May be the car got a scratch or two. The indicator of the bike got broken. Someone from the crowd yelled "Pathhu poga mattiya" which means "Cant you see when you drive?" The biker stood up, picked up his bike. The car driver came out, helped the bike rider with the bike and may be he said sorry or something and they were on their way.
That's all. No panic, no fight, no chaos NOTHING !!!!
I turned around and said "God bless Sambar", felt soemthing good about the whole thing (dont what exactly) and suddenly realized that I am late so I have to run. Then I imagined myself at a race track, getting ready to run and told myself "Adi.........Read! Steady! Po!!!" (lolz in Tamil Po means Go)
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sambar Salsa : Happy To help
This part of the blog begins where the first post ends....
Well I was on my way back home from the Vodafone store where I saw a girl ....... wait a sec. did I just say 'Home' ? Ohh ... I miss my 'home-sweet-home' in Kolkata-the city of joy, the laid-back city of mine, the phuchka(gol gappe)walas, the intellectuals, the football matches, Sourav Ganguly, Arka Ganguly aka Hatu [my friend] uffff....what not, so many things I miss about my city. They say once you are out of Bengal, you become more Bengali, once you are out of India you become more Indian, lolz now I understand what they meant. These days my ears are too sensative towards any spoken bengali words around me, may be inside the office elevator, may be at the bus-stop, may be at a restaurant. It's not that I engage myself in conversations with all Bengalies in Chennai, but it really feels good when you understand some of the random words which are spoken suddenly out of the blue. "I'm going home" by Chris Daughtry is the song which my portable media player showed as one of the frequently played song lately. So you can understand How much I miss everything about my city KOLKATA.
Anyway....where were we ? yeah....I was coming back from the Vodafone store, where I saw a girl ... who was like....awesome n all....wow....i still remember her face ... damn!! she was hell of a girl.....she was smelling like.....OHHHH SHIIITTTT!! again I am diverting from the topic of this lazy afternoon....
I was saying that...I was coming back home from the Vodafone store in Adayar. I asked a few guys about the shortest route to reach my 'Home' in Peringudi. Some guy gave me a bus # to catch and also pointed towards the bus-stop where 'he thought' the bus would stop. I waited there for almost 20 minutes and trust me in Chennai, that's a loooooong wait. Bus frequency is really amazing and you get different buses to go anywhere within a reasonable time. The way they have managed the communication is simply amazing. Hey Kolkata are you listening ? 'Learn from Chennai' yeah....you heard me right....I said learn this thing from Chennai. Not only this , loads of stuffs are there, adopting which would enrich our city.
So I was kindda getting irritated and after a day's work I was really tired and only thing which was kindda kept me going is the girl whom I met..... ( I promise this time I'm not gonna lose the track of my post)....so I was tired and lost my patience(it was my turn to lose patience hehehe!!!)and asked a gentleman who stopped just to attend a call as he was riding a bike. Unfortunately he was not fluent with english or hindi, so could not help me with the direction but I understood that he understood my question. He was about to start his bike but suddenly he asked me to ride with him. I was like "what? are you sure...I mean...are you serious?" What he communicated was that, "I will either drop you at Peringudi or atleast take you to a place where you can get a bus to reach your place".
Trust me I was in two minds what to do. I never experienced a similar situation before. I mean a stranger offering me help without any reason!! Moreover I am not a smoking hot chick with good numbers or something, I am a guy with a goatee and a weird hair cut, for christ's sake....
It took me a moment to realize, that it was nothing but a 'right intent to help' someone. That's all. I was the mean guy who was in two minds to accept his assistance. 30 minutes back at the Vodafone store I kindda utilized and snatched my share of assistance from the customer service rep and half an hour later I was in dilemma whether to accept a favor or not. That assistance at Vodafone store is something may be we all earn once we subscribe for any freaking service, but this kind of helps are something comes to you and surprises you and make you realize that 'what a mean person you are'. I ask myself why have we become like this ? For free we dont even accept favors. That's sad...isnt it? We gotta do loads of reality-checks in order to find out where we stand.
Anyway, I rode his bike, he dropped me to a place where I could get a bus. Before leaving he shook my hand asked my name, introduced him as 'Shekhar' and also said something in Tamil, which meant 'Happy to help', i guess. While walking the distance from the bus-stop to my place I thought about playing a tribute song on my mobile phone "om shanti , shanti..." a nice tamil song, which one of my coleague transfered via bluetooth, earlier that day. Yes I promise I will learn to play this song with my guitar some day and that would be a tribute all the 'Good-samaritans of Chennai'
Well I was on my way back home from the Vodafone store where I saw a girl ....... wait a sec. did I just say 'Home' ? Ohh ... I miss my 'home-sweet-home' in Kolkata-the city of joy, the laid-back city of mine, the phuchka(gol gappe)walas, the intellectuals, the football matches, Sourav Ganguly, Arka Ganguly aka Hatu [my friend] uffff....what not, so many things I miss about my city. They say once you are out of Bengal, you become more Bengali, once you are out of India you become more Indian, lolz now I understand what they meant. These days my ears are too sensative towards any spoken bengali words around me, may be inside the office elevator, may be at the bus-stop, may be at a restaurant. It's not that I engage myself in conversations with all Bengalies in Chennai, but it really feels good when you understand some of the random words which are spoken suddenly out of the blue. "I'm going home" by Chris Daughtry is the song which my portable media player showed as one of the frequently played song lately. So you can understand How much I miss everything about my city KOLKATA.
Anyway....where were we ? yeah....I was coming back from the Vodafone store, where I saw a girl ... who was like....awesome n all....wow....i still remember her face ... damn!! she was hell of a girl.....she was smelling like.....OHHHH SHIIITTTT!! again I am diverting from the topic of this lazy afternoon....
I was saying that...I was coming back home from the Vodafone store in Adayar. I asked a few guys about the shortest route to reach my 'Home' in Peringudi. Some guy gave me a bus # to catch and also pointed towards the bus-stop where 'he thought' the bus would stop. I waited there for almost 20 minutes and trust me in Chennai, that's a loooooong wait. Bus frequency is really amazing and you get different buses to go anywhere within a reasonable time. The way they have managed the communication is simply amazing. Hey Kolkata are you listening ? 'Learn from Chennai' yeah....you heard me right....I said learn this thing from Chennai. Not only this , loads of stuffs are there, adopting which would enrich our city.
So I was kindda getting irritated and after a day's work I was really tired and only thing which was kindda kept me going is the girl whom I met..... ( I promise this time I'm not gonna lose the track of my post)....so I was tired and lost my patience(it was my turn to lose patience hehehe!!!)and asked a gentleman who stopped just to attend a call as he was riding a bike. Unfortunately he was not fluent with english or hindi, so could not help me with the direction but I understood that he understood my question. He was about to start his bike but suddenly he asked me to ride with him. I was like "what? are you sure...I mean...are you serious?" What he communicated was that, "I will either drop you at Peringudi or atleast take you to a place where you can get a bus to reach your place".
Trust me I was in two minds what to do. I never experienced a similar situation before. I mean a stranger offering me help without any reason!! Moreover I am not a smoking hot chick with good numbers or something, I am a guy with a goatee and a weird hair cut, for christ's sake....
It took me a moment to realize, that it was nothing but a 'right intent to help' someone. That's all. I was the mean guy who was in two minds to accept his assistance. 30 minutes back at the Vodafone store I kindda utilized and snatched my share of assistance from the customer service rep and half an hour later I was in dilemma whether to accept a favor or not. That assistance at Vodafone store is something may be we all earn once we subscribe for any freaking service, but this kind of helps are something comes to you and surprises you and make you realize that 'what a mean person you are'. I ask myself why have we become like this ? For free we dont even accept favors. That's sad...isnt it? We gotta do loads of reality-checks in order to find out where we stand.
Anyway, I rode his bike, he dropped me to a place where I could get a bus. Before leaving he shook my hand asked my name, introduced him as 'Shekhar' and also said something in Tamil, which meant 'Happy to help', i guess. While walking the distance from the bus-stop to my place I thought about playing a tribute song on my mobile phone "om shanti , shanti..." a nice tamil song, which one of my coleague transfered via bluetooth, earlier that day. Yes I promise I will learn to play this song with my guitar some day and that would be a tribute all the 'Good-samaritans of Chennai'
Saambar Salsa-The Begining
Ya...I know it's kindda' weird how could salsa get along with 'Sambar' ! Did you just say 'Yuk!'...ya I heard it....lolz.....well, That's something we have in common now. We both say 'Yuk' when we first hear the word 'sambar'. But sad for me, sambar is a part of my mornings .... well almost everyday and I guess I gotta continue this pathetic menu for the rest of my stay in Chennai or any part of South India.
I guess this is the place where I write a disclaimer, I mean...c'mon I dont wanna get my ass kicked...right ? Well this disclaimer is directed to all the readers and viewers of my blogs, please please please for christ's sake dont take anything seriously, we might come accross lot of points where our views may differ but I guess looking at the positive side would be a good idea. May be I am gonna write a lot of things which you might not like , but please understand that...this is a blog and everybody can write of their mind.
Umm where to start....???
A'ite lets start with someting pleasant then ... what do you say ? (am I already sounding boring????...please feel free to do something else....I am not putting any virtual gun right against your head to go thrrough my BS)
Well...this thing happened like...couple of days back, after work I was heading towards Vodafone store, actually I was facing some problem with my cell phone (Vodafone sucks in Chennai, specially at my Office). Since I am new to the city had to take help of vodafone-store-online-locator to find one and thanks a lot to google-earth which helped me to understand almost the exact location of the store. So as I was saying that I was heading for the vodafone store which is located in Adayar. Took a bus, reached there, entered the shop, vent out all of my rage against the service to the represantaive. For the first time I found a Tamil dude listening to me with patience. May be he's into customer service that's why he'd been trained in that fashion but trust me guys...I will remember this chap only because he listened to me with patience and I tried my level best to prove myself as the un-happiest customer of Vodafone. Finally he took couple of minutes to give me a resolution and just like any other angry customer I had to calm down. Thought about saying sorry for my initial attack towards him but I was thinking how could express that I am not a bad preson either, just upset with the inconvenience that I had to go through. Suddenly a hot chick approached him with a problem that she was facing.....
"God bless North India"...I kindda whispered to myself as I saw her and just to surprise me that chap directed the 'Hot-chick' to another rep and to make it worse that other rep was a 'LADY'....can you believe this ??? Damn !!
I guess this is the place where I write a disclaimer, I mean...c'mon I dont wanna get my ass kicked...right ? Well this disclaimer is directed to all the readers and viewers of my blogs, please please please for christ's sake dont take anything seriously, we might come accross lot of points where our views may differ but I guess looking at the positive side would be a good idea. May be I am gonna write a lot of things which you might not like , but please understand that...this is a blog and everybody can write of their mind.
Umm where to start....???
A'ite lets start with someting pleasant then ... what do you say ? (am I already sounding boring????...please feel free to do something else....I am not putting any virtual gun right against your head to go thrrough my BS)
Well...this thing happened like...couple of days back, after work I was heading towards Vodafone store, actually I was facing some problem with my cell phone (Vodafone sucks in Chennai, specially at my Office). Since I am new to the city had to take help of vodafone-store-online-locator to find one and thanks a lot to google-earth which helped me to understand almost the exact location of the store. So as I was saying that I was heading for the vodafone store which is located in Adayar. Took a bus, reached there, entered the shop, vent out all of my rage against the service to the represantaive. For the first time I found a Tamil dude listening to me with patience. May be he's into customer service that's why he'd been trained in that fashion but trust me guys...I will remember this chap only because he listened to me with patience and I tried my level best to prove myself as the un-happiest customer of Vodafone. Finally he took couple of minutes to give me a resolution and just like any other angry customer I had to calm down. Thought about saying sorry for my initial attack towards him but I was thinking how could express that I am not a bad preson either, just upset with the inconvenience that I had to go through. Suddenly a hot chick approached him with a problem that she was facing.....
"God bless North India"...I kindda whispered to myself as I saw her and just to surprise me that chap directed the 'Hot-chick' to another rep and to make it worse that other rep was a 'LADY'....can you believe this ??? Damn !!
I took a moment to understand what just happened. Then I told him, "Dude ! if I were you, I wouldn't have let her go". He said, as he was assisting me, the next customer should go to the next rep available. I wish I could tell him I how desparate I was to sacrifice 'my part of service' to let him help that girl who was smelling like she came out of the Dior store just a moment ago. Huh!!
I chuckled, I said thanks and "appreciate your effort to make my experience a good one"....I came out of the store in a happy mood. I was more happy to see that chick. It was kindda' encouraging for me to realize that I am not alone. I was hopeful to see some potential 'hook-up' possibilities. May be not the girl whom I saw at the store, may be her cousin, may be her room-mate or may be somebody else, I dont care who....the point is "options are available"
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