Muslim woman wearing niqab. Isn't that hot? (I mean temperature-wise)


Endless traffic jams is part of my daily routine


Children building up friendship in a few minutes in a traffic jam.

“Sir, Mr. Ted Sir is from the Hong Kong main office and he is here to discuss with you the issue about the outstanding balance, we are now offering a FIVE PERCENT discount on the credit if you can write us a check immediately. FIVE PERCENT discount, that’s a lot of money, around 40,000rupees…” Diliep Sharma, a sales manager from the D&C speaks in a typical salesman tone. It is easy for him to sell customers products, but it is extremely difficult to ask his respected customer to pay on time.

The managing director of Rechlock Ltd, stares at the Chinese man sitting in front of his glamorous desk. “What is he? A high school student from China coming here asking for money from me?” He thinks to himself. He put on his “director” face as if he is ready for some didactics. “FIFTEEN PERCENT, then I clear the amount within a week”, he speaks in English with heavy Hindi accent, then he told Diliep in Hindi, “you two came to my office without early appointment, what do you expect me to do?”

“Mr. Ted Sir”, the young Chinese man sitting across the desk, is enjoying the scene: an Indian Boss showing off his higher social status and power to an Indian salesman who has been pressured by his Chinese boss to help clarifying outstanding balance with “Mr. Ted Sir”. “Mr. Ted Sir” knows exactly why he was offered this job: he is Chinese, he can speak enough English to overwhelm those Indians, he gets no pay from the job, and therefore he has no responsibility whatsoever on getting the money for his company. And the most important of all, he knows nothing about Indian culture and he doesn’t know he should fear (or at least pay enough respect to) anyone being called “director” in a company in the industrial area of Peera Garhi. “Mr. Ted Sir”, not understanding any of the Hindi conversations going on, copies the face expression from the MD and pretends that he’s annoyed by the lat payment. “After all I represent the creditor, he’s the debtor,” he thinks, “I should be firm and strict about the payment.”

“Sorry, Sorry. Our apology for not having scheduled this meeting ahead of time. But according to our record, your company haven’t been paying for our products for two full years. We understand your situation, but we also hope that you can be kind enough to consider our situation, we also have our own business and we need cash to keep it running.” Dliep apologizes in Hindi, except the first two words in English. He then looks at “Mr. Ted Sir”, the person sent from Hong Kong office that seems to be calm and firm in the meeting.

“TEN PERCENT. TEN PERCENT discount is the most we can give you regarding the current situation.” “Mr. Ted Sir” speaks firmly, feeling glad that he has spoken something that is contributive to the conversation. “I had a look at your products, all of them are of high quality, we want to maintain our cooperation, or else you left us with no choice.” He learnt the lines from a drug dealing scene from some random movies, and thinks that it is somehow fitting to intimidate his debtor.

The negotiation goes on and on between TEN PERCENT and FIFTEEN PERCENT… a discount on an outstanding credit that has not been cleared since 2007. It doesn’t matter if the debtor signed a contract or not. In a country that charge 30 times higher admission fee on tourists at local attractions, you cannot rely on the local law to protect foreign business.

After all, “Mr. Ted Sir” comes from another culture, another age group. He patiently listens to all the Hindi conversation, acts as if he is showing great concern. When the Hindi conversation finishes, he asks Diliep again for the English translation, which usually triggers another long Hindi conversation between the MD and Diliep.

After all, “Mr. Ted Sir” is just a college student, and he was given the order to make the meeting as long as possible, so that his debtors can recall a Chinese boy from a Chinese company came for the unpaid debt when his boss is ready to file some lawsuit against the company.

After all, “Mr. Ted Sir” wants to leave the boring conversation to enjoy his time in India, see and experience as much as he could in one month, and get his ass back home.