Pages

Monday, August 14, 2006

Run! It's them guys from AMWAY!!!!

1st Attempt: It was dandia night in Dallas and all of us were in this huge auditorium filled with 10,000+ desis dancing to gujju music! Our gang was already 10 or 12 people and we had formed our circle when a few people joined in and we did not complain. So we danced till the music ended and when we were about to leave a couple who had joined our group started complimenting me and my friend about our dancing skills and dressing style. And before we knew we were swapping phone numbers. And by the time we left the place Giri and I forgot about these guys totally...Until we received a call the following weekend...

The husband wanted to Girish to stop by at his house or he would come over to house to discuss some business proposal with us. The minute he said this Girish politely cut him off and changed his name on the phone to "Do not Answer" so that he would not even accidently answer the phone. But this guy was persistent. He called using different cell phone numbers and literally to the point of harassment!

2nd Attempt: So Girish and I were at Taj Imports buying Biriyani Masala when I walked over to another aisle to pick up some other spice. I heard Girish talking to someone and this guy was asking Girish's help to choose the best Tandoori Masala. The gourmet chef that Girish is he started suggesting what is good when this guy thanked and asked Girish, "Where are you from?" and then started the conversation about how he is also from Bombay and that his wife is also and architect, etc. and eventually he had Girish's number again!

Yes, predictably phone calls followed and this guy also harassed us until we completely started to ignore any calls from people who were not in our address book already!

3rd Attempt: This time it was Wal-Mart. Girish and I hate doing this but it is a necessary evil and we were there on Sunday evening trying to get our house stocked up for the week! I was trying to pick up some vegetarian soup...and Girish was reading the ingredients to be sure that I don't pick up anything that has beef stock in it when this desi guys walks up and goes, "Which soup is pure vegetarian? I can eat egg but chicken is a no no." Girish and I help him and start leaving hoping this is not one of those Amway attack when this guy stops us and asks, "do you guys live around here." Girish curtly said, "yes, we just moved." To which this dude looks at his watch and goes, "I moved here recently too, exactly 20 days ago." To which we both smile and he continues, "where are you from?" Girish is like, "Bombay," and he is like, "I used to live in Ville Parle for a year but I am from Gujrat." We told him politely it was nice to meet you and turned away making eyes at each other...

We were happy that we had smartly dodged another guy from talking to us but we were not sure that this was an AMWAY attack...But true to our suspicion he walked around the aisle and caught Girish when I was not with him and asked him for his phone number to which Girish had replied that we had just recently moved in and we did not have a phone yet!

Conclusion: The reason I am writing this is because of a few of these AMWAY Desis, I am at a point where I do not trust any of these Desis who accost me in public spaces. I am afraid that they are going to bore me with their AMWAY crap that I really do not care a dime about. How on earth can they even think that I will start anything with someone whom I know nothing about and met at Wal-Mart? It just does not make sense the way these people approach us. It is rude, irritating, annoying, and do not think that just because you are a Desi I will drop everything and trust you!

STOP HARRASSING US!!!

9 comments:

Trevor Penn said...

LOL, ROTFL... i know what you're talking about... it's gotten to a point where i have to talk to all unacquainted Indians with ultimate caution...

anywho, the places u mentioned are all known breeding grounds for these irritants... I got tricked at Borders, of all places... I was picking up a Dire Straits CD, and this guy walks up to me and goes i love sultans of swing... sigh, i fell for it...

Anu Russell said...

hehehe! I had a friend who asked this lady who approached her at Kohls with "Thas a pretty dress" line "Are you from Amway...if so please leave me alone!"

that lady did not speak another word. I mean they are stupid enough to get into that crap and they expect us to fall into it also...they are a pain in teh bloody ass!

Luv2cook said...

hehehe..that was pretty funny! I have heard stories about these "AMWAY" guys /gals from other friends but fortunately we don't have any of that :). Ahh..the pleasures of living in a college town :)

Anu Russell said...

yup Luv2Cook! I never knew any of these until I left Manhattan!!! It is really gotten to a point where I want to just scream at these people!

Bishwanath Ghosh said...

Last Sunday I shook off an Amway man finally, after he had been harrassing me for weeks that he had an exciting 'business proposal' for me. I tolerated his calls for weeks just because he happened to be an ex-colleague's dad!

Mukund said...

recently i found myself unwittingly in the middle of an amway talk programme n had a really bad time......have a half written piece on that! after reading ur piece, i'm thinking of completing n posting it on the blog!

Mukund

Anu Russell said...

@Bishwanath and Mukund!

Harrassment in India too? This is annoying because as we discuss this issue with other friends we get to know that everyone has had an unfortunate encounter of this kind! I hope these people stop harrassing unsuspecting people like us!

Fosix said...

totally feel you... i hate those guys... thanks to them you can never make new friends with strangers you meet in public...
if i meet anyone who has Amway written all over his/her face, i am very rude or curt... if they dont look like they are from Amway right away, then my first question to them would be "are you from Amway by any chance?"

Anu Russell said...

yup Exactly Fosix...

The sympathy I used to have for Desis who have just come to the USA or for old mom and dads are all gone...everyone is AMWAY now!!! Too bad!