It has just been over a year since I landed
in the United States
The
first few meeting i had with stranger desi(s) were uneventful. Generally they
fall into three catagories 1. the ones who give you that nice sweet smile
and 2. the ones who give u that doubtful look and when they are sure you
are gonna smile, would look away... and 3. the ones who dont care.. it took me
a while to meet the fourth category.. the “I can invite myself to your home”
kinds.
Saying ‘No’ does not come naturally to many
of us. It should be willingly learnt and this category taught us that in a
matter of few months.
I had this pre conceived notion that desi(s)
in US are self content, rich, happy folks who respect their fellow Indians.
Well many of them are except for the so called Amw** social marketers who think
that human relations are made for a purpose…. To sell their products!
To give you an example of a typical desi
social marketer:
We were at a supermarket the other day, and
were met by this guy named ‘Ravi ’ (Name
changed). He threw himself on us, showing us his daughter’s pics and how much
she resembled mine. As we all know kids are any parent’s weakness and for the same
reason is a sure shot target. He invited himself with family to our house. We
doubted his intentions and happened to talk about this with our neighbour who
to our surprise had also by then met the same guy, around the same aisle, at
the same store! He had told the same dialogue and even said how their daughter
resembled his! How low can people go to sell their products! We picked up the
phone, hurt to the core about how someone could feign friendship just to up his
sales target. We told him that if he intended to do any social marketing or
talk about it he better not waste his time. Though his sky high ego got him to
bring his family in, we made sure we do not encourage him any further.
At two occasions after that we were stopped by a
doctor couple and then by another guy. We made sure to store their numbers as
“Amw** Don’t Pick 1 & 2”. We had to handle relentless calling for about 2
months. Had to avoid eye contact at two places.. it is a hard lesson learnt.
I trust the products I buy off the shelf, not
some product which is sold to me for double the price by an irksome stranger!
Please people, acquire some sense... Don’t
misuse your social relations for the worth you get out of selling a tooth
paste!
