Only half a Euro Madam...

Today I was waiting on the side of the street with DH waiting for a taxi or a bus or something to take us home. Well, you know how the drill goes, nothing goes as smooth as you want it to in India. All of a sudden this guy comes up and stands in front of me and starts talking.

"Please madam, give me some money for food. I am unemployed and I do not have a job. Please, just one plate of rice, 20 rupees. Only half a Euro."

DH replied not so nicely, "No thanks!" while I stood there staring off to the right in an attempt to ignore this man, because all I wanted to do was say, "If you can speak English that well there is no reason you shouldn't be able to get a job, so why should I give you *MY* money?"

So, then I looked and DH and laughed and said I was going to blog about this. DH's response was "Cholo!" (let's go) and so with his camera in hand, we start following this guy and DH starts snapping his picture. We follow him a distance and DH speeds up and tells me to stay behind so the guy doesn't know we are taking his photo, and tries to get in front of the guy to get a better shot.

Well...just as DH gets in front of the guy, the guy veers off into the bathroom as I am coming up behind him, and so I cross to where DH is and tell him that if he wants a better shot he is going to have to wait until the guy comes out of the bathroom, and he says "Ok, I'll wait. But you get behind, so you don't catch his attention." I went and had an ice cream at the little Kwality cart and sat down and waited. We waited for like 10-15 minutes (and even purchased movie tickets for Sunday LOL) and there was still no sign of him.

We decided to give up and then started walking back towards home to catch something and all of a sudden the guy is right in front of us, I was thinking, "How the hell did we miss him??" LOL

I mean, seriously, this guy didn't look like a beggar. He spoke pretty damn good English too...I was almost tempted to tell him off, but I just ignored him since that tactic works pretty good for me (or the "Kichhu hobe na. Jao!" Nothing happening. Go!). Take a look for yourselves, since DH gladly gave me this photo. :)

Then we are walking further and this guy says to me "Madam, come inside, English movies." Seeing as how every time I go past one of these road side DVD stores this happens, I turned to him and said, "Aapni ki bhabchhen aami shudhu English bujhte pari?" (What do you think I only understand English?) and he looked shocked. DH had kept walking LOL

Don't say ram chagol! and Learning Hindi

Well...I'm into my 3rd week of Hindi classes, and besides saying small sentences like, "Mein khush hoon" (I am happy) or "Mein ladki hoon" (I am a girl) and the sounds, and a few words, I'm not so far into it yet. However, I can write the letters in their horribly round shapes (I much prefer Bengali script as it's more straight) and read it pretty well.

Well, let me tell you about my teacher. Her name is Latika, her native tongue is Hindi, and her husband's is Bengali. I know, you are probably thinking, Why do we give a crap about what her husband's native language is?, there is a point I promise! This is her first time teaching at Ramakrishna Mission, and she's not entirely sure how to go about it, not that I correct her. At the beginning of each class we are supposed to say a prayer, and in my Bengali class we were made to stand while we repeated it...well, she doesn't make us stand, maybe she doesn't know better? Also, I swear she has ADD (attention deficit disorder) because she can't stay on the same subject for more than like 20 minutes. If she did, we would already be done with the sounds, and writing, and you know...the boring stuff.

In one of my last classes we were going over some small vocabulary words. The word bakri (goat) came up and she asked me what it was in Bengali. I told her it was chagol, and after a slight pause continued on to say, "But, my husband always says ram chagol." Now, ram chagol means a billy goat, but it can be used as an insult, meaning a very stupid person. My teacher upon hearing this was shocked and said, "No! Don't say that! That's not a good thing to say!"

Then the next class we were going over the hindi words for banyan tree and riverside / bank (which for the life of me I can't remember at the moment, and I'm too lazy to get out my workbook...) and she couldn't tell us the exact English translation for them, so I texted one of my friends and asked him. He responded and I then told the teacher...hehe, the power of technology.

Oh, yes, and the workbook makes me feel like I'm in Kindergarten again...seriously, but anyways...I am enjoying shocking my teacher like this, and am half contemplating continuing with the courses just to entertain myself. :-) Because, honestly, if I didn't entertain myself somehow in this class, I would just fall asleep...not good! 

Did you say you were a Nokia Priority Store? Seriously!?

DH managed to break his clip that holds the holster on his belt for his Nokia N900 (for those of you who have no idea about phones, this is more of a computer than a phone...) and thus is carrying the phone in just the holster. Now people, let me tell you why this worries me. I've heard stories about DH leaving things and losing them. Umbrellas, expensive cameras left in the front seat of a cab...this phone is not something I want him to lose. So...I ventured out Wednesday to see if I could find him something. I went to the road side store I usually buy the screen covers at, and they had a flip cover, but not what I wanted. So I proceeded to all the other stores around, and still nothing.

Then today since I had to go to the mall anyways, I went to the Nokia Priority store. Well...I went in and asked if they had a carrying case for the N900 to which I was asked if I had the phone, which I did not. The sales representative said to me, quite rudely, that I *HAD* to have the phone with me. To which I said, "ki dorkar achhe? aapnar product janen na?" (what need is there? do you not know you product?) At this point he pointed me to the sales counter. There I went, and as there was another customer, I waited patiently for my turn. The man at the counter then proceeded to ask me if the phone was like the guy had. I don't know what phone he had, but I proceeded to tell them that No, it was nothing like this phone. It was shorter, and fatter.

Seriously, Nokia India...shouldn't your sales people know about your products? The people at the road side store and at the other stores at least knew the phone I was talking about. Ridiculous!!