The Hosts..

It was certainly not one of my best days..i got up in my lodge room to find that there was no hot water available. When I ventured out of my room to the so called recption, I could only find a sort of bell boy with his jhadoo who managed to communicate in oriya that the electricity was not to come before 10..anyways after this not so good start I got ready to leave to discover that I had to go to a dealer's place for breakfast as he was deeply "offended" when I declined his invitation last night (now thats another story).
I reached his place (I am yet to know his name honestly..let use Mr.X for convenience) flanked by my ASO and driver to find a virtual mansion of sorts. A huge 3 storeyed building with marble flooring n quite jazzy wod work but surprisingly with least bit of furniture. For once it reminded me of Arya Samaj temples with their marble floor and vast spaces. More so as the only prominent furniture in the living hall (really a hall) was a temple (lovely) and some bhajans were playing in the background (today being shiv ratri i guess).
Mr. X , with that kind of decency on his face,his round rimmed glasses, khadi kurta, pepper white head, tiny built and a serene smile, could easily pass for a goverment school teacher (bollywood ishtyle) rather than a marwari steel trader. Mrs X, on the other hand, could easily pass for our typical maru aunty with everything going for her- the gold, the bright lipstick and nail paint, a reasonably "healthy" body..pretty much everything including the accent.
Breakfast was served within minutes of my arrival. Upma, bhujia and rasogolla. Now, anyone who knows me any bit would know the kind of importance i give to my breakfast and how badly i need my bowl of cornflakes and coffee to brave the day ahead. Also, anyone who knows me any bit also knows that how much i HATE stuff like upma and sweets.
Someone rightly said that u need to adjust more than u think in sales jobs...pehle that lodge with its hard bed, worst dhaba food n chilled water aur ab royal nashta..man m so screwed.
Anyways, knowing where i was heading i had my expectation set right, thanking god that it was not halwa puri, I started ulping down the greasy upma, taking bits of bhujia now n den when aunty would insist. As if the nashta was not heavy enough, Mrs X started with the family talk..there 3 daughters and 1 son..all mba's (y r there so many of them..i almost feel lost in millions before i remind myself of the "top 5" mdi jargon ;)) Once aunty was done with her family biography she moved to mine...papa kya karte hain?? bhai behen?? education?? Salary kya hai...now thats too much.. Y is this sounding inccreasingly like a matrimonial interview...anyways!!
After an hour of chit chat and a chai to gulp down the upma..i am introduced to the mba son who starts talking about tata steel as an employer n all dat crap (wat company are u in anyways...n now i am seriously getting tired of smiling...u have tortured me engh with that upma n rasogolla..ur family details, my faily details..pls let me go, i have two districts and 200km to cover today)
Finally as i am done with my cuppa, Mrs X invies me for a ghar dekhai...given her excitement i could not refuse. So there we went room to room, washroom to washroom (comeon the last thing i want to do in the morning is take a view of ur intimate zones and listen to why you have both english and indian seats in the same washroom...mannn). After our kitchen round aunty ji handed me some special meetha ber and I finally bid goodbye to Mr. X, Mrs X and MBA son wondering y did i not make an excuse of shiv ratri n avoid the whole thing.
I am running an hour late already..maybe I can do the thinking in the cab.

another day on road in orissa...

I had a petty argument with my distributor yesterday...it was not the first time i came back from work fuming with anger bordering at a burst of tears. Later at night as I thought over the d argument (afterthought: terrible terrible habit!!) i could not get the source of this explosion. Some reasons were quite obvious...like my dbr being an absolute pest...but thats a given and his behavior should prompted no more disgust than the way you feel every time you use a public washroom or every time you get something that looks like rajma in your mess...they are disgusting and they are to stay that ways...
Maybe it was the change in my plan which was now to cover eastern orissa instead of keeping bhub as base and be back to the familiar, comforting room at ginger every night. It meant, i had to travel twelve hours a day...stay in shady lodges and sit in my tata indica for hours...All this coupled with cold and fever were perfect recipe for an outburst at slightest provocation...
Maybe it was something not so obvious.. like my general restlesness about my exponentially increasing waist size...i am just not used to such a sedantary lifestyle..
Given my situation what i needed was familiar places and some comfort and what i was getting was quite the contratry...my dbr being the cherry on the cake...
I got up today morning heavy headed to realize that I was already running an hour late...oh wat the hell...as if the retailers are dying to c me...or as if it even makes a difference whether i go or not..should i callup n tell my dbr that m changing my plan n i wud cover cuttack first..shud i head back to jsr...okay girl, packup..time for some district hopping...
After having a super heavy breakfast i finally decided to leave for my dbr's office while answering all those "maal aya..nai aya..kab ayega..rate..dispatch..loading" crap with my other dear customers.
The best thing i did this month was that i bought the lovely book by khallid hosseini..a thousand spledid suns..finally i get to read this one.. I am sure that it was the pills and not the book which got me doze off right after first few pages...anyways i finally reach mancheswar industrial area and there he is...my dear channel partner...dressed in his usual bright shirt and brighter tie (whats up wid the tie..now dats new). I flash my business smile at him and walk upto to make a couple of lame comments while mentioning i am down with fever (U have to work no matter what..got the point mr. good for nothing!!) He checks my forehead (TOUCHING!!! Is that allowed?? oh whateverrr..) anyhow he moves on to tell me some dadi maa ke nuske for cold and tells me he wud mail it to me (if only i cud get a mail for the month's indent from u, sir).
I finally leave the premise with my ASO (who took the front seat dutifully..thanku, i dont hate u now) and we hit the highway to hit bhadrak via cuttack.
The highway is wide and one can c long stratches of feils on both sides of the road...fry and arid land (mayb its winters) I slept and read and slept through our way to bhadrak.
These districts always surprise me..the sheer commercial qoutient of these areas is like wuhuuu..is this the bottom of pyramid?? i dont think so...
I mean being from delhi this "typical" view of orissa and then there is this district in orissa which mnay of us might not have heard of..which does not flaunt any bif mines/forests/industries/power station..we never came across them in our GK books or during our conversatins with those guys who know it all...but there it is..full of life..flooded with brands...my dealer owns a honda city...how in the world can soeone make that kind of money from a 10*10 ft hardware counter..it makes me blush at my own ignorance.After i gave some gyan to the chosen ones in bhadrak we headed balasore where i checked in the biggest hotel available...i opted for deluxe..the best room they had, hoping that they would have hot water shower facility..Hardluck!! Not much can be expected in Rs.700 per night..
In the evening, after i finished my business with dealers , i headed to gopinath temple with my ASO..it was nice..i always like going to temples...while coming back i stopped at a gen store next to my hotel (coloured with all HUL, Cadbury, Britannia POSM) and got myself some chocos (and i wonder y i put on weight!!)
Finally its time to sit back and relax with the things familiar and comforting..chocos, nice book and internet baba...
God y did i tell my ASO we wud go to that beach in morning..another early morning screw calling ;)