Yesterday, my friend and I took our customer, a lady for some window shopping to the nearest mall. The lady was in India since the last 2 weeks, first time for her and the only sights she had seen was the hotel, (located conveniently right beside our office), our office and of course the trip from the airport to the hotel, that was it! To add to her woes, she was unwell for couple of days, and was absolutely overwhelmed with the incessant rain. My friend and I were asked to show her the sights by our American colleague who was in charge of this customer account. We readily agreed because we exactly knew how it felt when you go to a foreign country and feel so out of place. A kind word, a smile goes a long way in making you feel welcome!
Once she got out of office, I'm sure she felt she was taking a breath of fresh air, of course, the polluted Mumbai traffic fumes doesn't count, but nevertheless, it was still better than being stuck within 4 walls. As we got to know each other, we realised how it is actually a flat world and how even though we might be separated by appearances, language, geographies, culture yet the issues, thoughts, insecurities, feelings that we had were still common! Something as inane as following diets and having the right food was a testimony to the universal weight issues that women grapple with day in day out. We laughed and joked about it and decided to give our respective diets a holiday and of course ended up being overfed, but it was well worth it.
We lazed around and did the ceremonial walking around the mall, you know the type where you just look around viewing nothing in particular but just soaking in the sights, the kind that your spouse just hates because there are no buying decisions made. So there that was similar too. She seemed to enjoy the colours, did not look as if they assaulted her senses yet. I started looking at stuff from her eyes, wondering what she would like to take back. You know after all India had a reputation to keep, the more colourful, the more junky the stuff the better representation it was of our land. But you know what happens when you do take the touristy stuff, it ends up in your showcase or in case of clothes, it just sits in your wardrobe collecting dust. So our advise to her was to pick up something practical which she or her friends could use, which she seemed to like. This was sheer experience speaking as I remembered picking up stuff from my travels abroad which I loved at that moment but right now they are just treasured memories, but with no practical use.
Over coffee she told us how she was planning to take her dad for a trip and how she spent time with her family during weekends. I could almost visualise myself in her place, it was no different than what we did. If you looked at it from a different perspective, we were two independent women working for our livelihood, trying to balance work and family life, trying to make the best of life, each single day. So how different were we?
Next week we plan to take her for a touristy version of Mumbai Darshan, would be fun to capture her reactions and see Mumbai through her eyes, we might actually be surprised!
Once she got out of office, I'm sure she felt she was taking a breath of fresh air, of course, the polluted Mumbai traffic fumes doesn't count, but nevertheless, it was still better than being stuck within 4 walls. As we got to know each other, we realised how it is actually a flat world and how even though we might be separated by appearances, language, geographies, culture yet the issues, thoughts, insecurities, feelings that we had were still common! Something as inane as following diets and having the right food was a testimony to the universal weight issues that women grapple with day in day out. We laughed and joked about it and decided to give our respective diets a holiday and of course ended up being overfed, but it was well worth it.
We lazed around and did the ceremonial walking around the mall, you know the type where you just look around viewing nothing in particular but just soaking in the sights, the kind that your spouse just hates because there are no buying decisions made. So there that was similar too. She seemed to enjoy the colours, did not look as if they assaulted her senses yet. I started looking at stuff from her eyes, wondering what she would like to take back. You know after all India had a reputation to keep, the more colourful, the more junky the stuff the better representation it was of our land. But you know what happens when you do take the touristy stuff, it ends up in your showcase or in case of clothes, it just sits in your wardrobe collecting dust. So our advise to her was to pick up something practical which she or her friends could use, which she seemed to like. This was sheer experience speaking as I remembered picking up stuff from my travels abroad which I loved at that moment but right now they are just treasured memories, but with no practical use.
Over coffee she told us how she was planning to take her dad for a trip and how she spent time with her family during weekends. I could almost visualise myself in her place, it was no different than what we did. If you looked at it from a different perspective, we were two independent women working for our livelihood, trying to balance work and family life, trying to make the best of life, each single day. So how different were we?
Next week we plan to take her for a touristy version of Mumbai Darshan, would be fun to capture her reactions and see Mumbai through her eyes, we might actually be surprised!
