Thursday, November 30, 2006

A Few Good Salesmen

All the foreign documentary makers who have stereotyped India as a country of snake-charmers and cows need to be given a second chance. They can be offered a trip to this road on an auspicious day, and assuming they make it out alive, be asked to re-evaulate their options.
Excerpt from "Welcome to Death Valley a.k.a North Usman Road".

A big poster of a young lady with lots of love for her father in her eyes overlooks the entrance into one of the leading Jewellery shops. It reads "If your daughter doesn't deserve a platinum ring, who else does ??". Within no time, a whole line of fathers with lots of lover for their daughter queues up. Clearly, its not just the mega-serials that tap our sentiments.
Excerpts from "Mega Serials and Their Hidden Agenda"

When Lady A is thinking Parampara Pattu is probably the way to go, Lady B suggests Swayamvara Pattu. Lady C disagrees because Samudhrika Pattu clearly beats them hands down. However, according to the Lady D, that is because they haven't seen Vivaaha Pattu. Somewhere among all this, the store owners laugh their way to the bank and the original weaver from Kancheepuram who made all the four sarees is wondering what all the fuss is about.
Excerpt from "Nobody's Fool"

"This is not the Yellow color that I wanted".
"The Magenta would have been great if it had the border of the Teal one".
"I saw a beautiful saree when I got married in 1978. Do you have the same design for my daughter ??"
The Salesmen could answer "Errmm, there is only _one_ yellow according to the Rainbow", "We don't have that because it would suck" or "The only thing that has stayed the same since 1978 is the Ambassador and we can't give you that" respectively. But he can as well kiss his job Good Bye.
Excerpt from "The Thriving Art of Salesmanship and The Dying Salesman"

"I want this problem fixed".
"I want the feature that Solaris has in this operating system"
"We badly need a solution"
The software fraternity answers "Upgrade to the new release", "Thst is Solaris and this is not" and "You are not big enough for us to spend our time on you" respectively.
Excerpts from "1001 Famous Excuses for Software Folks"

Clearly the software mafia (includes Directors, Managers, Leads, Engineers, Response Center - the works) is the biggest whiner in the history of God's creation. Consider any one listed above from the software fraternity. Workplace is air conditioned round the clock, Free internet, At times free grub, Yearly raises as a right, Free petrol for the select few, Free car for the select few and a probably the best introduction into the marriage market. All this and they barely have to sell anything. Sofware Folks, get a life. Saree Salesmen, I bend my knee and bow my head to thee.
Excerpts from "The Life and Death of Saree Salesmen."

Women always pick the 'n'th saree where 'n' is a complex number that is a derivative of the table's strength to withhold sarees before giving in, the jealous look on the neighboring women's eyes and the strength of the pre-planned collective gasp of amazement let by every salesmen in the floor on cue when they think enough is enough. Popular criteria like a bored and dejected male companion, proximity to lunch time, the last train back home are myths.
Excerpt from "Da Saree Code"

On an average, it takes 72 women hours for a benchmark shopper (Read: Case where there are no visible tears in the eyes of the salesmen and the companion) to buy three sarees. It takes 15 women minutes for a benchmark shopper to buy a Veshti for the male companion. Reason: _Each_ shop has a _zillion_ varieties of sarees. All shops have _the same two_ varieties of veshtis.
Excerpts from "The Dominant Sex Alright, But Which One ??"

If a Double-Sided Saree costs 68000 rupees, wouldn't it be prudent to buy two sarees for 34000 each since
a) one cannot wear both the sarees at the same time
b) two people can wear two sarees while it might be a bit difficult to do it in a double sided saree without breaking the Laws of Physics.
Of course, there is a basic assumption that 68000 bucks for two sarees is within cardiac-arrest levels of the man.
Excerpt from "Favorite Last Questions By Men"

Bold men have tried to force their wish on the saree selection process, but have been rebutted with the unwinnable argument "The saree happens to be the _only_ thing that I like in this whole marriage. Do you want to disappoint me on that too ??"
Excerpt from "Championship Point"

Encouraging the favorite pastime of men (constant complaining for no apparent reason), Keeping million households alive by their wants, Keeping the economy of otherwise struggling areas like Kancheepuram unlike their male counterparts who are bent upon contributing to filthy rich money barons like ITC, UB and the likes, Yep, that demands a standing ovation from all Men (disgruntled or otherwise) to all you Women out there. Go Girl.

Andhar balti (Sommersault) in the end I agree, but undeniably true.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The saree happens to be the _only_ thing that I like in this whole marriage. Do you want to disappoint me on that too ??" :P =))
ena ena colour podavais?

and x-( im still angry with you!

Anonymous said...

:-D
Double-Sided Saree occupies less closet space than two Single-sided-sarees. no ? ;-)

Anonymous said...

btw to my knowledge i have seen only this - "punnagaiyum ponn nagayum neengadha selvamaai.. gunamoodu vaazha manamaara vaazhthugiren.. manamaara vaazhthugiren" Prince Jewellery Panangal Park, Chennai

and Kalyana ponnuku vairam vandindu varala Varam vangindu vandruken

Inda rendu dialogue dhan max parents adipanga.. Mukavasi Platinum jewellery ellam either the Lover boy would gift to his girl or a husband would do to his wife.. appa amma range elam only Gold or diamond :D!

Narayana! Narayana!! Anonymous comment ezhudaravanga note panikonga pointa ;) hehe

Anonymous said...

@heidi k - note pannekinenge ;)

Anonymous said...

Enna, saree selection phase'ila irrukeengala... Seconds tick onto minutes and minutes to days - Time moves, inexorably, but surely ! :)

Anonymous said...

Isn't it South Usman Road?

Totally empathise with you, these girls can never be satisfied.

Anonymous said...

Read 'Veni, Vidi and Annegato' from your archive & absolutely loved it. I am a crazy addict of 'LOTR' & haven't touched 'Silmarillion'. The little that I've read Tolkies, it is hard to believe there could be a source of middle-earth details other than LOTR & that too, to a higher level!? That post of yours was educative. I appreciate :-)

Tyler Durden said...

@heidi
enna oru nallennam.

@mayuri
less closet space ?? how do you manage to find a positive out of just about anything :-) ??

as regards to the Silmarillion, it is an edited work by Chris Tolkien. If only JRR was alive to finish it, it would've been awesome.

You can also check out "Unfinished Tales" and a story on Tom Bombadil by JRR tolkien set in Middle Earth.

@G
Agree totally. :-).

@Thala
Edho oru Usman thala :-D.

Anonymous said...

So was it the Swyamvara or Vivaaha or a changeable template based saree??

Romba romba pom pom!!! [Pardon the Tamil]

Tyler Durden said...

@the last anonymous (kanishka)

what makes you think it was just one of the lot :-) ?? you will know soon mate ;-)

(google note: every comment by a user who still hasn't migrated to google now shows up as "anonymous". ridiculous)