Hmmm.. what can a 'blogger' say about her long, baseless absence from a blog she started on her own of her own will? Nothing, except for hoping that the next post will not be 6 months later :)
Life's become interesting these days and probably that's the reason I didnt get time to sit down and reflect.. Am working with Nestle these days or the "Sunrise company" as is more popularly known in the parts of Tamil Nadu where i hower these days.
I joined Nestle partly because it was a great brand, partly because it sold Maggi and partly because it would get me marketing sooner than other FMCGs. 4 months of hardcore sales later, I'm afraid I've been converted to the unglamorous, ground level, grindingly real and really grinding world of sales. My appreciation for the function is doubly so because of the fact that I learned it in a part of India where I couldn't ask a question in a language they'd understand and where their answers were more like questions themselves.
This helplessness is what pushed me to learn tamil and so I marched towards Landmark to buy a English-Tamil book.
But u know what.. the enthusiasm for referring to such books dies down pretty soon.. Imagine someone asking you 'whats the time' in tamil and instead of looking at your watch, you're flipping through 300 pages to tell him the right answer!
But not referring to books has its cons as well.. I remember being locked out of my flat once, so I went down to ask the watchman if he had an extra key.. Only when I rushed down I remembered our man spoke Tamil alone.
Being the queen of bravado that I am, I put some tamil words together in my head and blurted out " Neenga duplicate key irruke?" Which clearly is respectful, but means "Are you a duplicate key?"
I figured out that I'd said something not quite right only when he rolled his eyes at the bizarre questions of the 5 foot nothing girl standing before him :)
Sales in Tamil is not so difficult initially.. All you need to know are a few sentences like 'stock irruka?', 'stock illaya?', 'ellamey fresh stock irruke?" . Unfortunately, the more confidently you utter such phrases, the more the retailer would be convinced of your prowess in Tamil and start relating his life's woes in one swift shot. It is for moments like these that you should also know words like "Appadiya? (Is it?)" and "Aama (yes)" which you can interject with along with a sympathetic nodding of head.
Ofcourse there's the more likely occasion of you not having to speak any tamil whatsoever when you enter a shop, identify yourself, and are greeted with a highly pleasing sound of "Vanda, Vanda, Vanda" (Don't want) in a tone so frightening that you'd be scared to cross his outlet the next time.
Unfortunately its time to say 'parkalam' to TN now as my sales stint winds to a close and I'm pushed into factory stint at Nanjangud, Karnataka.
So will manufacturing coffee in Kannada be as much fun as selling it in Tamil? Let's see :)
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