The Poor Lost Soul.

Yet another day, in the US. Yet another night shift for a poor lost soul in India with only pictures of his client company's products to comfort him.

Every evening at around 5pm, he sets out, risking the heat, the humidity, the traffic and the general bloody mindedness of most of the people around him rushing to get home. He trudges along the paths and dusty roads towards the bus stop so that he can catch a bus or an auto to office. Along comes an auto driver, one of those rascally bandits who specialize in daylight robbery, and asks him where he wants to go.
"Perungudi" says our poor lost soul.
"Ukkaru" says the auto driver.
Poor lost soul looks momentarily lost as his befuddled brain flips through the very thin tamil-malayalam-english dictionary in his head.
The rascally bandit begins to understand that this here is no common person. Here is a victim ripe for robbery. He begins to use sign language to indicate that the poor lost soul should step into his parlour.
Poor lost soul understands that the auto driver wants him to get in and sit.
He asks "etharey aakum?" And from the auto driver's blank look, realizes that no matter what people say, most of the really useful words are not the same in malayalam and tamil.
His tired brain begins rifling through the dictionary again.
Finally, he says "Evalo?"
Upon which the auto driver says "Enpathu rupaa, 80 rupees." and begins to recite that great essay written by the Father of All Auto Drivers Everywhere. It involves a lot of sign language as well. The poor lost soul grasps a few concepts; like "heavy traffic", "very long distance" etc.
The poor lost soul takes out his ragged bulging purse and begins the arduous task of finding money in between all those ATM slips and bus tickets. That is when he remembers he did'nt get his salary this month due to "procedural delays in the processing of his reimbursements." and that he's a very poor man, unless people start accepting ATM slips as currency. He sighs. He looks at the auto longingly and signs to the auto driver, that he, being a poor man, cannot afford 80 rupees. He realizes that some concepts like "poor" and "afford" do not translate easily to sign language. He sighs again and walks away. The auto driver curses him for having wasted his time and drives off. But the poor lost soul is not concerned about curses especially if they're in tamil. He doesnt understand them anyway. But nevertheless, his brain takes out another small, tightly bound book with the words "Restricted - under Parental Guidance Only" in large red letters on the cover, and files away the tamil curses for future reference and possible usage. He ends up standing at the bus stop for another 45min before the bus comes. Thus begins our poor lost souls day.

Another day. Another podi dosa for dinner. Another 10 or 20 so-called-coffees that night. Another million people with a zillion problems who expect you to solve them.

And that is only the tip of the iceberg. To really enjoy this blockbuster superhit show, watch this channel everyday on weekdays, at 5pm. Cry with the poor lost soul, laugh with him (rarely, and mostly cynically" and sweat with him (no puns or innuendos intended. This is Chennai. Here, sweating, like breathing, is considered one of the vital signs of life. Any person who does not sweat in Chennai is probably an alien wearing human skin.) Live the life of a Support Engineer.

PS: Actually, its really not that bad. Work is great, but my social life sucks like an old man with no teeth trying to eat an apple. But things will improve. Let me just get my bike. The new black pulsar 200 that has my name written on it. Yes, i did that on the fuel tank, when i went to their showroom and the security gaurd wasnt looking. I tried to rub it off, but it didnt go. And then...