Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Spar comes to town (along with a ticketing system)!

A few months ago, the Spar arrived in Hyderabad.  Good competition for Q-Mart (the other supermarket that stocks overseas products).  The strange thing in Hyderabad is that it is pretty common for supermarkets to be placed on the top floor of a shopping outlet, whereas most other places they would be place on the ground floor for ease of popping in and out.

The Spar decided to base itself on the 4th floor (maybe this is because of a rodent problem???), anyway, after you navigate the funny moving escalator walkways you arrive, slightly dizzy from the zig zagging, at The Spar.

The management have had the foresight to include a butchery and fishmonger department which seem to be well stocked on most occasions.  Obviously, they were well received and the queues at the fishmongers must have been becoming quite an issue, so a ticketing system was installed (can remember when these were first installed in Tesco in the UK, about 30 years ago).  Well, the ticketing system is not in the most obviously visible place, and who would need a ticket if there is no queue??

My friend Tara, who I have mentioned before (I think?), happened to call into the Spar the other morning and made her way to the fish counter to place her order.  There was no queue, not even another customer,  and it didn't even cross her mind to take a ticket.  The assistant took her order and began to prepare the fish as requested.  Suddenly, the assistant stops and tells Tara that he has forgotten a step in the procedure and tells her she must take a ticket.  So, having learnt that it is often easier to just go along with the system rather than fight it, she takes a ticket.  Number 70.  She returns to the counter where on seeing her the assistant presses the 'special button' which calls customer 70 forward to be served.  Tara hands him her ticket, he checks it is the special 70,  he says "Thank you Ma'am, how can I help you"  She says, you can finish gutting my fish, and can't quite believe what has just happened and can't retain her laughter anymore.  You can either laugh or cry.

Made me laugh.


Re-entry to India

Having recently spent a week in the UK, where the weather was crisp and cold, but wonderfully dry the children and I returned to Hyderabad whilst John went elsewhere for a conference. Now, arriving in Hyderabad is a much improved experience compared to two years ago.  The airport is brand spanking new but the experience continues to be a frustrating one on times. 

On this occasion there were queues at each of the counters, but in India you will rarely find that people observer the red, wait here until called, lines.  Instead, there are weary travelers crowding around each counter thrusting passports forward.  You will then often be greeted at immigration by an immigration officer who looks bewilderingly at your passport and spends five minutes on each individual passport.  The fact that the original visa has been extended (has to be done on an annual renewal basis), and the original and extension stamps are on separate pages confuses matters even further.  For this reason little sticky post its are affixed to the original visa page and extension of visa page.  All temporary residents in India for longer than a year are faced with a similar problem, and this makes me wonder why such a situation encounters such a 'haven't experienced this before' look. 

I am beginning to believe that whilst undergoing training to be on the front line of immigration for their country, as opposed to the Americans "How dare you attempt to enter my country" attitude, the Indian authorities suggest an "act confused" front whilst sussing out each and every visitor for as long as possible.

Finally, get through and take advantage of the duty free shop for wine purchases (previously unavailable in the old airport), and by the time we get to the baggage hall our bags are arriving, which makes me think that the immigration officer has merely known how long the bags will take and has timed the process perfectly for my benefit!

We make our way through the throng of people outside, it seems that 20 -30 people is the average number of family of friends waiting to greet each returning  Hyderabadi.  It is 5:00 in the morning, a quick phone call to say we are on our way out.  Our car arrives and we are met by the ever smiling Shivar.   Home we go.