Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Cheep! Cheep!

I was amused when I read this in JP’s blog. I have had a fair share of incidents when I have had to keep a straight face with people around me make horrible howlers in pronouncing English words. I completely understand that they may not have had the opportunity to study the language in great detail. What gets even more hilarious is the use of English words in the vernacular language.

The other day, I was at the Fotofast store to get prints from my digital camera for the first time. The last time I had prints done was way back in 2001 when we didn’t have a digital camera. At the counter I saw a couple getting their photos downloaded onto the PC first. I hadn’t brought my USB cable along so I wondered if I could borrow theirs.

I informed the salesgirl at the counter that I didn’t have a USB cable.

Salesgirl: Cheep ahe na?

Me: (Yeah right I know it is cheap to get prints at Fotofast.) Majhya kade USB cable nahiye.

Salesgirl: Ho kalale. PaN cheep ahe na?

Me: I know you need to endorse your shop and all that with the competition increasing but I have a problem here. *gawking like I landed from Jupiter*

Salesgirl: Tyachyat memory cheep aste. *quiet exasperated by now*

Me: Oh no no, my 512 memory card was not really cheap. And I don’t want to buy one more from you even if you say it is cheap. *Still gawking*

Finally the irate salesgirl took me to the Fujifilm kiosk and showed me the slot for the memory card.

Me: Ohhhhhhhhh Chip!

The salesgirl looked at me as if I was a cavewoman.

Sorry folks, I didn't translate the conversation to English because it would have killed the joke.

19 comments:

Handful Of Hell said...

cheep joke!!






Er

I meant, a joke with a cheep in it :D

phatichar said...

hehehe...cute.

The Avenger !! said...

Splendid kirthi :) as for people who couldnt understand the Marathi, Geez boyyy you missed out !!!

Roshan R said...

lol..dont think its really necessary to know marathi to get this..

Kirthi said...

Hoh,
Yeah right! Very punny!

Phatichar,
Thanx for dropping by.

Avenger,
Well that's not fair is it :)

Pythoroshan,
Thank God for that.

I hope SP gets it!

Prashanth said...

I'm here, I'm here! What did I miss? Did someone mention my name?

Pssst... What would you get if Frito-Lay merges with Intel?
Microprocessors, of which no one can buy just one.

The Avenger !! said...

Kirthi, apologies for the introdution.
I just loved this post and hence the initial introduction, i have changed it and i sure hope you like the update !!!

Vc said...

Sp's joke was too good 1 chip ..uhahhaaaaaaahhaaaaaaaaaaaa and see sp didnt get your chip joke..duh! anyway happpy birthday...and how old are you kirthi ?? 39 ? no that was last year...so you must be..uhahahahhhaaahhaaaaaa ;)

Kirthi said...

SP,

That's so typical of you...Vc btw it is cheap chips :P (actually not!)

Avenger,

Hmm maybe it looks better now :)

Vee

And you must be 298366 years old!

Vinod R Iyer said...

For all u know the girl would be paid for this!! Part of her job I mean .. But ya it is really cheap cheap way to sell :D

Nikhil said...

[Waving my hands frantically]

Hello!!

Having stayed in Gujarat for four years, I can definitely understand!

Anonymous said...

Well done Kirthi, this was a cheep take of yours on the poor salesgirl...She should have been the one writing this blog on how stupid her customers are :P

Bee said...

same difference when a non-tamil speaking person enters a shop in some place in Tamil Nadu, I guess this happens all over the country probably where people do not understand the languages others speak but do not want to tolerate this indifference too..

Well written, anyways, Kirthi..

Kirthi said...

Vinod,
Ahh you r giving too much credit to that salesgirl!

Nikhil,
Haha! I've read some of ur posts on such incidents :)

Anony,
Hello! That is so damn mean!

Bee,
I nearly thought it was my friend "bee"...but she seldom comments on this url. Well it is not about not being able to understand their language per se because I understand Marathi. I can't understand English spoken with a Marathi accent :)
Thanks for dropping by!

itchingtowrite said...

ha ha . good one

Enigma said...

:P that was a good one

Vc said...

hey Kk who's that vinod ?

and happy krishna jayanthi and ganesh chatuuuuurthi...main hoon don don don dananna ananana ...

Prashanth said...

Happy diwali, Kk... you too Veee!

Kirthi said...

Vee, SP,

Thanx for the Diwali wishes. Wish you a happy Diwali too :)