(A couple of big posts are coming up. I'll put up a few snapshots here.)
The apartment hunt is going to take up most of my time this week (in theory). I've been asked to spend all available time on that, including take time off from work.
As I was hunting apartments online, a colleague walked up and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm another Kalyan." He's Telugu, and based on our short conversation I'm about 70% sure he's related to me through no more than two steps. As I talked to him about accommodation, he quickly called up an agent and hooked me up. Sounds like a good deal in the sense that it's close by and cheap. I'm waiting for the fine print.
Turns out his agent is Telugu too. Which caused me to immediately fire up my Telugu Landing System (TLS). By TLS I'm of course referring to the delicate dance that I (I assume other Telugus do this too) perform while meeting a new Telugu person. In particular it comes to one very important question - at what point do you drop the first Telugu sentence? (Sometimes the other person will make the crucial step and you won't need to worry. At other times you'll have to take the onus.) Too early and you'll sound needy or "uncool". Too late and you'll be snobbish city boy (or NRI) who can't be bothered to speak in his own mothertongue. The whole procedure is not unlike landing an aircraft on a carrier. I broke out a "ఆఫీసులో ఇంకా తెలుగు వాళ్లు ఉన్నారా?" (Are there other Telugus in the office) as soon as he finished talking to the agent and I think the ice is broken. As it turned out, he was very cool and even offered to introduce me to his mother so she could figure out how I'm related to him :)
There is a good chance he'll end up being my neighbour.
The apartment hunt is going to take up most of my time this week (in theory). I've been asked to spend all available time on that, including take time off from work.
As I was hunting apartments online, a colleague walked up and introduced himself, "Hi, I'm another Kalyan." He's Telugu, and based on our short conversation I'm about 70% sure he's related to me through no more than two steps. As I talked to him about accommodation, he quickly called up an agent and hooked me up. Sounds like a good deal in the sense that it's close by and cheap. I'm waiting for the fine print.
Turns out his agent is Telugu too. Which caused me to immediately fire up my Telugu Landing System (TLS). By TLS I'm of course referring to the delicate dance that I (I assume other Telugus do this too) perform while meeting a new Telugu person. In particular it comes to one very important question - at what point do you drop the first Telugu sentence? (Sometimes the other person will make the crucial step and you won't need to worry. At other times you'll have to take the onus.) Too early and you'll sound needy or "uncool". Too late and you'll be snobbish city boy (or NRI) who can't be bothered to speak in his own mothertongue. The whole procedure is not unlike landing an aircraft on a carrier. I broke out a "ఆఫీసులో ఇంకా తెలుగు వాళ్లు ఉన్నారా?" (Are there other Telugus in the office) as soon as he finished talking to the agent and I think the ice is broken. As it turned out, he was very cool and even offered to introduce me to his mother so she could figure out how I'm related to him :)
There is a good chance he'll end up being my neighbour.
2 comments:
Its been more than an year since I joined my company and I am still doing the dance with quite a few people! I somehow find it uncomfortable to talk in anything but English, in the company.
What I'd generally do to start the "dance" is to throw a sentence into the air - "enta sEpu waiting-O, EnTO!", "abba, ukka pOstOndi...", "ikkaDa eppuDU ilaagE unTundaa?", etc. are good stock sentences for such a throw-in-the-air context. :-)
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