Lankan Ranger
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2009
- Messages
- 12,550
- Reaction score
- 0
Modern India: A personal experience of a Sri Lankan
If you go to Chennai, you must visit T-Nagar for shopping. This is an extremely busy town with thousands of people from various parts of India and other countries visiting to buy textiles.
In T-Nagar there are a few famous places to consider when it comes to shopping and one of biggest and famous places among those is Saravana Stores.
Saravana Stores is a paradise of textiles with an unbeatable range of clothing, garments and accessories sold at unbelievable prices. The outlet has eight floors and each floor is dedicated to different product categories.
On a visit to Chennai, we went there to buy some stuff and entered the ground floor with great difficulty since many people tried to enter the place at the same time.
Once you enter the store, there are a few guys handing out a printed guide to the place with a description of what each floor contains, including the types of products available there.
In addition, there are a few ladies standing at the entrance dressed in saree and they are called ‘customer service girls’. As soon as we entered the premises, one girl approached us and offered her services.
There are two lifts near the front entrance, but you have to wait for a long time to get in since there are hundreds of people trying to go up.
She quickly took us to a lift at the back and there was no rush to get in. We went to the eighth floor and decided to walk down from there, covering all floors.
Shanthi is the one who served us and she was nicely dressed in a beige saree. When we started buying stuff, she brought a large bag and put everything into it. I asked for the bag so that I could carry it, but she refused and indicated that she would hold it for us.
This has made our life easy since our hands were free to pick and chose anything from the store. Within a short period those large bags start filling with goods and she keep on adding new bags to the tally.
Since she was very courteous and helpful, we started talking to with her, but she was struggling to answer in English and whatever questions we raised in English were replied in Tamil.
However, she always made sure that communicated what she needed to in an efficient manner. We felt little odd to see a lady carrying all our bags, but whenever I asked for a few bags from her, she always refused.
Since we were in Chennai for a few days and little educated on the set-up there, we quickly figured out we must give her a tip at the end. Initially we have decided to give her 50 Indian rupees. Since she was very helpful when we come down from one floor to another we always raised the thought that we must give her something extra as a tip.
We thought the only reason for her to do all this for us was in expectation of some money, since that was a common practice in Chennai. When we reached the fourth floor we decided that we must give her at least 200 Indian rupees.
Slowly we came down to the second floor and she was carrying a few more bags and by that time she told us everything about her, but always in Tamil. We were keeping on increasing the amount we intended to give her as the tip and it became 400 Indian rupees once we reached the second floor.
After covering all floors we thought it was enough and she entered the large queue on behalf of us to reach the cashier. Throughout this time she never allowed us to do anything else other than select stuff to buy, while she willingly did everything else.
After the bills were settled, we decided to leave, Although we first had slightly negative thoughts about her motives, since we felt she was doing these services expecting our tip, by that time we felt a little sorry about this girl who carried all our bags and made our shopping experience easy.
We finally decided to pay her 500 Indian rupees, I gave the note to her.
With the greatest surprise I experienced in Chennai, she refused to take the tip from us. We know for sure that 500 Indian rupees is a significant amount for them and it was shocking to see that she didn’t accept it.
When we forced her to take it, she whispered the only sentence she expressed in English:
“Sorry sir, this is my duty.”
The whole image I had in my mind about money-hungry Chennai people collapsed and I felt very guilty about the initial bad impression I had about her. It was amazing to see an employee in Chennai who has got inculcated a protestant work ethic and good values.
I left the store thinking of one thing: Can sales guys back understand this simple logic and genuinely perform their duties? I leave it to you to come to your own conclusion.
If you go to Chennai, you must visit T-Nagar for shopping. This is an extremely busy town with thousands of people from various parts of India and other countries visiting to buy textiles.
In T-Nagar there are a few famous places to consider when it comes to shopping and one of biggest and famous places among those is Saravana Stores.
Saravana Stores is a paradise of textiles with an unbeatable range of clothing, garments and accessories sold at unbelievable prices. The outlet has eight floors and each floor is dedicated to different product categories.
On a visit to Chennai, we went there to buy some stuff and entered the ground floor with great difficulty since many people tried to enter the place at the same time.
Once you enter the store, there are a few guys handing out a printed guide to the place with a description of what each floor contains, including the types of products available there.
In addition, there are a few ladies standing at the entrance dressed in saree and they are called ‘customer service girls’. As soon as we entered the premises, one girl approached us and offered her services.
There are two lifts near the front entrance, but you have to wait for a long time to get in since there are hundreds of people trying to go up.
She quickly took us to a lift at the back and there was no rush to get in. We went to the eighth floor and decided to walk down from there, covering all floors.
Shanthi is the one who served us and she was nicely dressed in a beige saree. When we started buying stuff, she brought a large bag and put everything into it. I asked for the bag so that I could carry it, but she refused and indicated that she would hold it for us.
This has made our life easy since our hands were free to pick and chose anything from the store. Within a short period those large bags start filling with goods and she keep on adding new bags to the tally.
Since she was very courteous and helpful, we started talking to with her, but she was struggling to answer in English and whatever questions we raised in English were replied in Tamil.
However, she always made sure that communicated what she needed to in an efficient manner. We felt little odd to see a lady carrying all our bags, but whenever I asked for a few bags from her, she always refused.
Since we were in Chennai for a few days and little educated on the set-up there, we quickly figured out we must give her a tip at the end. Initially we have decided to give her 50 Indian rupees. Since she was very helpful when we come down from one floor to another we always raised the thought that we must give her something extra as a tip.
We thought the only reason for her to do all this for us was in expectation of some money, since that was a common practice in Chennai. When we reached the fourth floor we decided that we must give her at least 200 Indian rupees.
Slowly we came down to the second floor and she was carrying a few more bags and by that time she told us everything about her, but always in Tamil. We were keeping on increasing the amount we intended to give her as the tip and it became 400 Indian rupees once we reached the second floor.
After covering all floors we thought it was enough and she entered the large queue on behalf of us to reach the cashier. Throughout this time she never allowed us to do anything else other than select stuff to buy, while she willingly did everything else.
After the bills were settled, we decided to leave, Although we first had slightly negative thoughts about her motives, since we felt she was doing these services expecting our tip, by that time we felt a little sorry about this girl who carried all our bags and made our shopping experience easy.
We finally decided to pay her 500 Indian rupees, I gave the note to her.
With the greatest surprise I experienced in Chennai, she refused to take the tip from us. We know for sure that 500 Indian rupees is a significant amount for them and it was shocking to see that she didn’t accept it.
When we forced her to take it, she whispered the only sentence she expressed in English:
“Sorry sir, this is my duty.”
The whole image I had in my mind about money-hungry Chennai people collapsed and I felt very guilty about the initial bad impression I had about her. It was amazing to see an employee in Chennai who has got inculcated a protestant work ethic and good values.
I left the store thinking of one thing: Can sales guys back understand this simple logic and genuinely perform their duties? I leave it to you to come to your own conclusion.
