Swami visits Rura

A weeks time in Kanpur and Swami met a number of retailers and Wholesalers in his beats some prasing, some complaining, some reciting stories and some even abusing! The endeavor during the beats used to be to do maximum sales and at the same time pacify angry retailers and visit retail outlets which the salesman otherwise was skipping for some reason or the other.

Meanwhile Vajpayee had planned for Wednesday as his weekly off and since Swami was on a Shadow sint he too was following the journey plan and this effectively meant that Swami would be working nine day in a stretch.

Swami noticed that retailers in city had big expectations when a company official was visiting them and some even enquired with him on whether there is any special retailer scheme in the offing. Vajpayee meanwhile was now entrusting responsibilities on Swami and was asking Swami to make sales call with the Salesman at outlets. Swami duly used to come back to Distributor points and give his feedback to the distributor on the salesman's working in the beat.

Swami wan getting into the saddle well now and now his first upcountry visit took him to Rura, a town in Kanpur Dehat District. Swami was quite excited at the prospect and was eagerly looking forward to the interaction with people there. The mercury in Kanpur and adjoining areas was only rising higher in the meantime and the heat had no signs of reducing. Swami dressed in simple formal attire, with a Perfetti Bag hanging on his shoulders(which had a bottle of mineral water all the time) started for Rura by Etawah Passenger early morning. This also meant Swami caught up with Breakfast at Kanpur Central Railway station, the menu being Puri and Sabji which was very popular all around. The other omnipresent dish used to be Samosas, which was turning to be Swamis Favorite. Swami also made sure that he does not miss on the Famous UP Lassi served in Kulhad(Earthern ware) at a point called Tiwari Lassi near his hotel.

Vajpayee had suggested Swami Hotel JaySiyaRam serving Pure Veg. Food near the station,(Area near the station referred to as GHantaghar, on account of a clock tower) and after a days meal Swami fell in love with the homely food there. Lunch vanished from Swami's daily meal dictionary and hence he made sure he has a good breakfast which cann keep him going through the hot days and come back to Jay Siya ram for good food.

Swami's train to Rura passed through rural settings and he was quite keen to see Rural Uttar Pradesh and its beauty. It was indeed true that Uttar Pradesh had a lot to offer than politicians and Swami was very happy that he was discovering the place.

After an hour and half's journey Swami and Vajpayee landed at Rura. Having got down at the station he along with Bajpai walked about two kms to reach the distributors residence. Swami could gather the impression that the town was centred around the main road which he walked across and the only mode of transport there was a moth shaped tempo which was stuffed with some 15 odd people. Swami was keen to try this mode of transport sometime and even made his desire known to Vajpayee. Vajpayee informed him that the moth shaped Tempo did not travel via the the place they wanted to go and hence they cannot board it.

Swami and Vajpayee after their 2 kms walk reached the distributor point and were treated to cold water and then hot tea. Conversions with the distributor revolved around the same dialogues,"Saheb Dhanda to Manda hain, Abhi to school Band Band hain na...to Bache to Nani-Dadi ke ghar pe hain". On a lighter note, Swami thought that Rura definitely would be having Nanimas and Dadimas living for grandchildren to visit, then why the flawed reasons. He decided to check it himself when he goes to the market.

In the meantime the distributor salesman arrived and he was introduced as Naresh to Swami. Swami was quite amused at Naresh's Hindi, it had a rural touch and for the first time in his life Swami had to concentrate to catch his words. Naresh had also named Confettis's smaller SKU of Chewing gum as "Babua"(in English means Baby) to sell it to retailers in Rura.

Vajpayee duly asked Naresh to make a sample of some slow moving products to carry it along in the beat and instructed Naresh that they would not skip a single outlet.

This commenced one of the most interesting days till now for Swami! Naresh had an excellent connect with the retailers and wholesalers and he cnahged his style with each outlet. Almost every call was a productive call that day. During the course of the beat Naresh enquired with Vajpayee on who Swami was. Bajpai told him that he had done his MBA. Naresh was someone who had never been out or Rura in his life and he failed to understand what an MBA was!

He asked Bajpai for an explantion of the term "MBA" which he referred to as "MCA". Vajpayee then asked Naresh whether he understood was Standard 12th was, to which Naresh nodded. So Bajpai told him, " After 12th Swami had studied till 16th Class(meaning his engineering) and then again studied for two more years to complete 18th Class." Naresh was thrilled to see that someone could study for so many years when people he knew used to drop out well before standard 10th. He immediately retorted, "Agar Saheb itne padhe likhe hain, to kya humme woh passwale Akbarpur ka area bhi dila sakte hain tofee bechneke liye"?

Both Vajpayee and Swami smiled at his question and Swami could see Naresh's passion for his work. Naresh was quite motivated that day with two company officials accompanying him and they visited every outlet possible, selling sugarfree chewing gums at Medical Outlets, opening new counters at Sweet outlets, which had problems of coinage of lower denominations.

Be it the FreshMints or the Liebe candies of Confetti, Naresh, Vajpayee and Swami sold the entire range. The respect and patience with which retailers heard the company officials was quite different that the city. Swami was duly impressed and at the end of the day they did make a point to the distributor on how they had done sales inspite of all his excuses.

The trio had walked all through the town and had now walked for some 6 hrs at a stretch. Bajpai and Swami had already missed the train back and now they had to settle for bus. This made them travel through the moth shaped tempo to reach the Highway Bypass to catch a bus to Kanpur. After a forty minute journey they reached Akbarpur Highway bypass to get on to buses coming from Auraiya and Etawah to Kanpur.

The highway was deserted, with very few vehicles. There were jeeps carrying people to Kanpur and Swami wondered why Vajpayee was waiting for the bus when they could easily take the jeep. He suggested the same to Vajpayee, that is when Swami also spotted people travelling on bikes with rifles hanging on their shoulders! Vajpayee told him that these jeeps were risky and were not safe mode of transport.

Sometime later Swami again saw a group of people walking with rifles!...Swami wondered whether they were common people or police in normal dress....He checked with Vajpayee and he was informed that they were indeed common men.....

Swami's next question-" Why are they carrying guns?...whats wrong with them..Vajpayee's reply-"Just like you and I carry mobiles, they carry guns!'"........Yeh hain Uttar Pradesh...
Next Update:- Swami visits Farukhabad and Kannauj