Aside all the good things about living close to new york city, there is one unfortunate consequence of friends visting us combining with their tour of new york city! The catch : Those tours have no hotel stay 🙂 (No offense; those who visited us) So that story repeated for the 5th or 6th time this past weekend. So we visited the world trade center site for a 200th time and thats apart from the daily stop over there that I am used to when commuting to work 🙂 Add to that the woes in the messy processes for buying a home, we have been stuck with so many things to do in the past one month, I would have never believed that I will find no time to post a note here. Its not about the time anymore, its about the mental readiness to spend that time on to writing something worth. Another part of your brain tells you that “Just gimme a break”.
We celeberated Krishna Jayanthi yesterday with loads of bakshanams(sweets & snacks) feasted to Lord Krishna. Our toddler krishna idol was given a nice bath and was transformed into his festive attire. To save her some last minute work, Harini had cooked and packed all the the snacks a week earlier. They have been dangerously arousing our appetites since then. To make it even worse, she had boxed them in transparent plastic cases and elegantly arranged them right over the fridge. Just FYI, that is the first and brightest spot that will catch your eye everytime you walk into the kitchen!. But Harini acted as a demon for last 5 days gaurding the snacks from me. Seedai and thatta murukkus were most vulnerable, I could have done dozen things to steal them, but then I didnt. At least, I shouldnt admit that I didnt -:). Finally the demon transformed into a pious and traditional patron yesterday to perform the poojas. Me the evil was eyeing the obvious! We all had a taste of the snacks around noon yesterday and I should say, they were worth all the anxiety and wait. Seedais rocked, undeinably of Lala sweets quality! Murukku Thenguzhals come close second with Rava urundais grabbing the bronze (with olympics season, my ideas run wild! ). She told us Rava urundai was screwed up, but as always, we werent wise enough to notice. After all I savor them once a year, How in a life time I can remember what it tasted or looked like last year?
Funny, it takes me two paras to come to explain the title. Imagine if I hadnt looked at the title just a second ago, I would have slipped two more here before my horse treaded back on course. So recently I changed my really really neanderthal timeline sanyo phone to a new, trendy and cool, Nokia 6225, with a camera (for which I didnt find a real use though I like the built-in FM, grabbing everyone attention with ads & music from pockets! ). In order to change my not-so-great SprintPCS service from my old brick phone to the new hep one, I called up Sprint customer service. After a minute or two, a lady voice sounded as if it was a robot. I really should have recorded it for you to believe how she actually said the words, “Hello Sir”. It was programmed to be that way, the same precise, even if she repeats a million times. Of course, it took no time for me to figure that she was an Indian female (from a call center in blore or delhi). But her english was so strangely funny that a computer would do a better job. Atleast I would have felt better if I didnt knew it was a human. As she started helping me transfer the service to the new phones, I understood she was reading everything from a screen or paper infront of her. But that robot english was so annoying. It was clear and understandable but with absolutely NO emotions attached it. Trying to do one aspect of phone based customer service, she was totally lost on the human aspect of the call. After all, isnt that why we are still having humans answer the phones at call centers? And she said ‘Sir’, about three times for each sentence, it was as if I was a district collector and she was a peon. But its all ok until the wierdest part that came towards the end. After switching the service(technically she was perfect!) and after I said thanks,
she said, Sir…Sir, H O L D O N Sir, I would like to tell you about some our long distance service..etc?
I said, “no thanks, I am not interested now”.
She said, “N O, S I R. Its part of my job to explain this to your Sir”.
I said, “No, Mam, I have already heard about it and I am not interested now, Thanks for your offer”
She said, “P A R D O N M E, Sir, My call is not complete until I tell you about this Sir”
I screamed “WW HH AA TTTTT?” I said to myself, “Holy Mother, please save me from this ruthless evil of Off Shore Marketing ! ”
She of course is relentless and wasnt stopping, ” Sir, Can you tell me how much you are paying for your current long distance service Sir? ”
I just thought I should help another fellow indian by not hanging up on her, but she was just pissing my paitence off.
I said “I am sorry Mam, I dont want to share that info with you, I really need to hang up now, Thanks for your help”
She goes, “Sir, Long Distance calls are getting expensive and Sir, this is a rare oppurtunity for you to save Sir”. As she said that, I was burning with fury.
I said “Listen Mam, I am paying $9 a month for Verizon local only with no frills attached, Can you beat that?”
She said, “O H, H O, O H R E A L L Y, Sir, I am sorry I wont be able to do anything for you with that Sir”
I thought, “YOU wont be able to do anything for ME? Holy Mother, DIDNT I TELL YOU THAT BEFORE, Why in the hell didnt you listen?”
Somewhere in the middle of this comic conversation I switched over to speaker phone so harini could listen to the robotic accented english of this Indian female. As I hung up the phone, Harini was literally holding her palm across her mouth laughing herself out. It is unfair to judge all India call centers based on this one funny experience, but my first impression will stay for a while.
