This story is selected as Editor’s Choice and won INR 500
Hilarious Short Story – I too went On-site!
Photo credit: mimiliz from morguefile.com
Please god One on-site..
Plleeeaasssee god just one on-site….
This used to be my daily prayer.
Working in IT industry I always had the dream of landing in Heathrow or JFK with bag full of Papad’s, Pickles , Podi’s and getting clicked at Times square, Trafalgar square.
My prayers for onsite came true with a sudden call from my boss on a Saturday evening.
‘Sorry to disturb you. I called you to check whether you are ready to travel abroad immediately? ‘
Other than ‘Salary is credited’, this is the best sentence that I have ever heard in my career.
‘Yes…’ I replied before even he could complete the sentence.
Yaaay….Now I too can start drafting status like ‘Love you…London’,’ My first spring in Texas’
I walked to office next day with my head held high.
‘Hey Initiate the Travel request fast.’ My boss shouted on spotting me.
‘Is getting Visa that easy?’
‘It’s visa on arrival for Vietnam. Now raise it fast.’ he answered.
Hang on..VIETNAM
Vietnam??
Then the realization dawned on me that I agreed for travel, without asking which country it was for. I would love to go Onsite, but Vietnam?????
After lot of discussions, debates, deliberations, finally……….. I was forced to agree for Vietnam trip.
I think I should have given god, list of countries that I wanted to travel . My prayers were way too general.
Where is this Vietnam in world map?? What is its capital?
I landed in Vietnam before I could find answers for these questions.
And it so happened richest phase of my life was when I was in Vietnam. I always had 50 lakhs in my purse. Can’t believe right?
De-monetization? Rupee fluctuation is worrying you? 1 USD will give you a handful of 21,000 VND. When I visited it was somewhere around 26000. You have currency notes of 100,000, 200,000, and 500,000. A trip to market would cost you 200,000 and Taxi charge would be 500,000. There’s where I held 50 lakhs worth the money in single hand and felt rich.
On my first day in client office, I realized this is the place I wanted to be. Yes… I entered to the Client office at 12.40 and saw someone sleeping in his desk. Wow.. Everyone around the world has a problem opening their eyelids post lunch. Then in an adjacent room many more people were sleeping. I wondered whether did I step into a dormitory by mistake!
Later I came to know that their lunch time is from 12.00 to 2.00 and during that time they can officially sleep. This afternoon nap is supposed to be for increasing productivity. I completely fell in love with the client.
Ever since I knew this productivity factor, I’m following that in off-shore as well, but bit unofficially .
We went for sight-seeing to a scenic place called ’ Perfume Pagoda’ , organized by one of few tourist operator who speaks English. At lunch, I asked them for vegetarian food as I’m a vegetarian.
Spot came the question “Vegetarian?? what does that mean??”
As that was the first time I was posted with such question, I told him that I eat only Vegetables and Fruits.
Once he shared this information with cooks & other workers in restaurant , I realized how Zoo animals would feel. They looked at me as a different species and handed me a full uncut cabbage for lunch!!
Meanwhile my mom threatened that she will not allow me inside the house, if I didn’t get her a handbag. I entered the famous night market of Vietnam for the same. I spotted the handbag and asked for its price in all language that I knew.
As it wasn’t going anywhere I took out my mobile and typed ” amount?”
Shopkeeper typed 100,000 in her mobile.
I typed back 25,000.
She shook her head and decreased the amount a little. I shook my head and increased the amount a little. After several interations, finally we nodded our head at 60,000.
Hence proved- bargaining doesn’t need words and an Indian can bargain despite not knowing the language.
I also got my boss a gift for sending me onsite. I got him a bottle of ‘Snake wine’, wine produced by infusing whole snakes in rice wine.
Nowadays my prayers are very specific.
Please god just one onsite….America,UK,.Australia,Canada
–END–
