Coffee, Compliment and English

Was sitting in Cafe Coffee Day today with the missus*. There was just another customer besides us. The guy approaches us and says- "Brother! Can I say something?" I say yes. He says- "You sound good." I think maybe he was an audience in some quiz that I conducted and liked my voice (though I must not let you get that notion- my voice doesn't sound too good on the mike). The missus thinks the same. Then he adds- "You both sound good." Too stunned to correct his English, I murmur a thanks and he goes off giving us a thumbs up! We were in splits for the next half hour or so.

Now I can appreciate the power of bad English. Had he used proper language, we may have thanked him and proceeded to sip our drinks. His incorrect usage gave us a reason to laugh and be happy. Long live desi English!

*I am not married. Not yet (thankfully ;) ). The term was borrowed from one of my dear friend's blog where he uses the same to refer to his girl. Also, it has some old world charm. Plus, as he frequently reminds me: "The English messed up with us for 400 years. We can pay them back by messing up with their language!" He devotes hours trying to cook up new Indianised English words!

Surprise

A few months back, while in the throes of a deep slumber stolen from the regular work hours of my department, I was woken up rudely by an incessant and somewhat loud knocking on my door. I opened up to find a courier boy holding a parcel and a piece of paper to sign up. After verifying that the parcel was indeed addressed to me, I signed it and received it. Upon opening, I found a beautiful pen stand with an accompanying card. The card alluded to my brilliant personality and magnetic charm [i exaggerate, but you get the gist ;)] and also to the fact that it was a one off thing and that I was not supposed to worry about it. It also asked me to listen to a particular song by some young singer about some refreshing drink. I read the note, tried calling up the number (which btw, was signed MH and obviously false since a marathi lady was on the other end admonishing me in what I thought to be the choicest words possible in her language- i don't know- never understood a word of it), and then dutifully listened to the song. I didn't like it much but it wasn't bad either. 

End of story. :)