Sonia goes to Gitex

Went to Gitex. What an absolute waste of time!

The place is HUGE, so I just got to cover just one hall.
Got loads of brochures, several bags to carry it all in, a few dozen business cards, hundreds of enthusiastic handshakes, and a million plastic smiles to boot!
I went with this colleague of mine, (let’s call him J) who has been going for years and loves it (he’s really weird, and not just cos he likes Gitex)!

We’re walking together, and I’m asking him something and suddenly I see him smile like he’s discovered his long-lost brother and he runs to this guy.

Hey yar Srikanth!!! How’re things?
Slow man, slow! It’s been a slow start.
Yeah?
Yeah man, slow! Slow!
Slow huh?
Yup, slow!

Just I start to tune off this scintillating conversation, Srikanth suddenly notices me standing beside J. “Heyyy! Is this...” he says, with a (un)knowing smile.
(OH Noooooo! Don’t tell me he’s actually linking me & J romantically! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuccckkk!!)

Arrhem, this is my colleague, Sonia, J corrects him, before he can put his STOOPID thoughts into words.
Thanx for the intro J, about time!

Enter me, with bright plastic smile on my face and murder in my eyes.

Howdedoo? My handshake has an extra firm grip to it.

Err…sorry…err... fine! Kinda slow actually!
(Yeah, I see that, but I wasn’t asking about your mental capabilities, numbskull!)


I saw two Filipino dancers doing a promotional dance for Canon (wonder if they come free with the purchase!) and also a fake David & Victoria Beckham (you know, the look-alikes). Duplicate David (DD) could have made a more authentic Moose Miller (from Archie comics). And Vicky-wannabe was wearing a pair of sunglasses (yeah, inside the building) that covered half her face, so you couldn’t make out who she was supposed to be anyway. She might as well have claimed to be a Britney Spears look-alike!
Wonder what they were doing there!
Canon needs a new marketing manager!

Three excruciatingly boring hours later, we headed back to the office. We had to wait for awhile for the taxi, cos everyone wanted one, and there was this looong line. We finally got a cab, but we got a maniac of a cabdriver (what were the odds of that happening to me?!!) who kept banging the window cos he couldn’t close it!! I had made the mistake of asking the man (who seemed perfectly sane till then) if he could switch on the AC. That’s when I realised that the AC was already on, but his window was open. He blamed it on the circuit, tried ALL the buttons, making all the other windows open and close, and even opened the car door (I’m NOT making this up) and kept banging the door and window with all his might to get the damn window to close. No luck! Obviously.Damn window wouldn’t close! All this when we were stuck in traffic! I watched as signals turned from red to green and back to red! Cabby was oblivious to all of it and totally frustrated with the window not closing. And the window remained stubbornly stuck, until he gave up! Then when we were driving along at snail’s pace (traffic was BAD), the window suddenly closed, on its own!!
Sheesh! Me thinks teenage ghost has haunted that car!
We finally got back to the office an HOUR later (the ride usually takes 15 mins).I got home late & with a killer headache! :o(

Can’t believe I’m going to have to do this AGAIN tomorrow!

Oh yeah! I forgot to mention, it wasn’t all bad.
I got a job offer! :o)