You look Familiar

Off late I have started using five sentences more frequently.

1) Let me think about it

2) Give me sometime to think about it

3) I think I am not interested.

4) Take it easy

Or the clichéd 5) let me get back to you.

All the above statements technically have only one meaning when it comes to marketing – Just F*** Off. To me Just F*** off is as good as the other three.

I like people marketing their products and ideas. I sincerely think that marketing is important and it is a win-win situation in life. The benefit that I get out of someone marketing a product/service is the knowledge of the same. What I don’t like is people cheating or exaggerating more than what they are in the pretext of selling an idea or a product.

Honesty is all I expect from any one when trying to sell something to me. If he is honest in what he says and if I feel that he believes in what he says I would definitely give it a try. I get turned off if people try to doubt my intelligence and treat me like joke.

Couple of years back when I was eating in one Indian restaurant in Stamford, I befriended the owner. I like that guy because of his brutal honesty. He never asked for my suggestion about his food. One day I casually asked him if he ever ate in his restaurant implying the degrading quality of the foodJ. He apologized to me and told me that he himself is in fact planning to change the chef. He said, he wants to serve quality food for the price we pay and he is trying to bring good cooks from India. He requested me to continue to come and give him my honest feedback in private. I really liked his honesty. I kept going to the same place until I was there in that town.

As I moved out of that town couple of months back, last weekend I went to this new Indian restaurant. If I am going with my friends I normally leave it to their choice and just eat and get out without commenting about the quality of the food. I try my best to avoid giving criticism unless asked. This time I went all by myself. I read reviews praising this place as one of the best in the country. My expectation was already very high for this place before stepping in. It’s a north Indian restaurant and menu featured the typical Indian restaurant in America menu. Not one item differed from the standard list. I had absolutely no surprises on that front. I ordered an appetizer, a soup and an entry. It sucked. I was very angry already because I couldn’t complete even one dish that they brought. I didn’t show my anger or pass any comment as the server was a polite guy and he asked me if I want any desert. I rarely eat desert with my meal, so I turned it down. I don’t know if the server was ashamed of the food himself or he had something else to do he didn’t bring my check but the owner brought it to my table. The food was flagrantly highly priced even by the Indian restaurant standards. I kept quiet and simply paid it by cash. When he brought back my change he asked for my suggestion. I smiled and in a joking way told him that I am hungry that I have to find another good restaurant now to eat. Man you should see his face. It turned red. He started defending his restaurant saying that it is the best and so on. I absolutely had no patience to listen to him; I simply told him to “Take it easy” and got out of that place. Only I knew what I actually meant.


I don’t want to start saying things about Amway; I know I am not the only one to run if I see anyone anywhere associated with that. J. Have you seen them introducing themselves to an absolute stranger? ‘Hey, you look familiar’, ‘Are you related to the guy from Bangalore’, ‘did you go the university in that town or the near by town?’, ‘you work in the company that he works’, ‘I want to share a business plan with you’ or the regular ‘you look familiar’ lines. These days there are clones to it. ‘Hey me and my friends are starting a networking site’, ‘Are you into orkut or face book?’ One day I surprised a guy in Wal-Mart. A desi guy out of blue came smiling towards me and said ‘You must be from Chennai’, I smiled and replied ‘and you must be from Amway’. He was embarrassed and surprised at the same time. I told him my theory on how to spot an Amway guy, he just couldn’t stop laughing or pretending to laugh. We had a cup of coffee after that in the near by shop. After 15 minutes he invited me to his diwali get together with his friends. I told him that I would like to but his Amway buddies there would bore me to death. He couldn’t hide his disappointment and threw in the traditional sales pitch. Guess what did I say?’ Give me sometime to think about it’. I gave the wrong phone number as usualJ. Praise the lord for giving those lines. Amen J