Sunday,Nov 15 2009, 12:48:14 PMStory of a software engineer: Cultural shock!

In My Saturday work, I met this guy at my check out yesterday.  He is an Indian guy from his late 20s or early 30s may be. From the first look at him you can see he is new to this country, a bit confused, a bit lost, feeling out of place. When I asked him after finishing his transaction, if he is new here, he said yes. He just arrived last week. He is a software engineer and going to stay here for a month for his work.

Anyways, the fun begun when I star serving him. He asked me price of every single thing he was buying, although I am sure, prices of all the products are written on the shelves since it’s a legal requirement. First he asked me to check the price of a pack of “Chapati” (Indian kind of bread). I told him the price; £1.48. That’s a pack of 8 chapaties. He thought for a few moments (I knew he is converting the price in Indian Rupies…Lollzz) and then said, “no…its ok, I don’t want it”. Then he asked me the price of tea bags, and it went on like this. He discarded half of the products he had on his trolley after taking a few moments to think every time I told him a price (convert the price in his head!).  When we finished, he asked for a bigger bag to keep his stuff. I told him, the normal career bags are free, but you have to pay for the bigger ones. The one he likes was 38 penny. When I told him the price, he thought for a moment, and as usual said: “no, I don’t want it”. I said ok and thanked him and said good bye (the queue behind him got pretty big by that time and people were making annoying faces!). But he didn’t leave the till; he stood by it and told me to serve other customers. I told him very politely that, I can not serve other customers until he leaves the till. In that he took is shopping out of the till, put them on the floor by it, stood there and started checking the bigger shopping bags which were hanging on the till’s bag stand. I apologise to the next customer and asked her, if I can serve her like that. It was pretty awkward,  the customer was not amused, but said ok ( it was already way too long for her to be in the queue. So he stood there kept checking the bigger bags, converting the price in his head, comparing that with Indian price and I kept apologising to customers and serving them. It went on like that for some 10 minutes.

After a lot of thinking, and asking me all the benefits of that bigger bag (which I had to reply at the middle of serving other customers something I am not suppose to do), he decided to buy one bigger bag. So, I had to serve him again breaking the queue, making other customers more annoyed. However, when he finally said bye and went away, I was pretty relived. But my happiness didn’t last long! He came back after  some 15 minutes and said, you did not give me the right change. So, in the middle of serving other customers, I had to take his receipt from him and explain the whole transaction to him once again (which was only £7.22…Lolllzz), showing him exactly how much he paid, how much he saved from multi buy savings, and how much he got back, and counted the whole amount for him. He understood it, (or so I thought…lollzz) and went away only to come back after another 20 minutes or so. I think he went up to bus stand, kept converting the prices of those things he bought in his head,  realised he had made big mistakes buying those things and came back to me again. This time he wanted to return some of the stuff he bought!! (I bet he is going to need them…goshh!!, those are essentials of life! A frying pan, a cup and a little knife!...I wonder how is he going to manage to drink his tea with out a cup!!). I told him where to go to return those stuff. So he went off…never came back to me again. I suppose, he went to the customer service a few times after that!!...Lolllzzz

The whole incident was very amusing! I understood every single move he made. May be that is the reason I served and dealt with him very patiently and with good humour. You see, it’s not easy to come to a new country, especially one like UK or USA from countries like India, or other places. The cultural shock is pretty great! The first thing that effect people, if it is not weather (since people kind of get a mental preparation of bad weather in UK), it’s the price of things. I am sure it’s horrendously expensive when you convert sterling pounds into Indian Rupies’. I am not sure how much is the conversion rate now, but it must be something like £1.00 to IR100.00. The difference is a big thing to take in. Like those chapattis he returned, I am sure he is going to need them (hope he is not going to starve himself to death…lollzz) but paying nearly 200 Rupies for 8 Chapaties, the poor guy could not accept it. It’s the same with the other stuff he discarded, and returned. I am sure, he is a smart guy in India, a software engineer can not be dumb person! He sure has a good job, since is travelling to UK with some job responsibility, and e must earn a good amount of money too. But, these first week in the UK making him feel so confused and lost. One day, he might think of this incident and laugh his head off of his own naivety!

I was wondering, is there a way, we can reduce this cultural shock? Since the world has become so small with technology and stuff, its not fair that smart people would feel this confused and vulnerable when the go to another country. What do you think?

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Saturday,Nov 14 2009, 11:32:31 PMLife is strange!!

I have got a big shock today. I have this colleauge at my Saturday work. She is 64 years old, kids are all grown up and left home. She is divorced with her 1st husband and was living with her current partner for 13 years. Today she told me, she is leaving him! I was very surprised because I always thought they were very happy. They go for holiday together prety often. They even have a wooden cabin in Portugal. She used to talk to me very highly about her partner. Today she told me she is leaving him next week!!

When I asked her why? She told that is ...

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Saturday,Nov 14 2009, 11:22:28 AMTarot

Last night I asked a question to tarot and this is the answer I got. It actually makes sense!! :)

Now is a time of commitment. Decide upon your direction or goal and begin the journey towards it. Take time to recognise the patterns that have sabotaged you in the past and eliminate them from your future. Change must take place in the inner you before change can take place in the real world. Let balance be your watchword and if you need help then it will appear

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