दिलदार बीडी नो: २०२

There I was minding my own business, like I always do on the tube, miserable and tired from the daily grind, eagerly looking forward to going back home to a hot cuppa and a lot of food when I was given the lesson of my life on globalisation.
 
I was on the 1945 train from Uxbridge to Aldgate, the precise geographic location eludes me, suffice to say, it was in England! Completely knackered from a hard day at the office, I could barely keep myself from drifting off over the book I was trying to read. As is normal, I checked my surroundings just to make sure I was not surrounded by any dodgy looking characters (wink, wink!!!). To my left was a slightly inebriated gentleman; opposite me was another elderly gentleman, the very vision of calm, with the wizened air that only age can bring.

Diagonally to my right, were two girls who were carrying a suitcase and carry on bag each, chattering away in a language I did not quite understand, it must therefore, be French. All this is regulation occupancy for the train thus far. What made it unusual was the luggage they were carrying.

The suitcase for girl 1 was nothing remarkable, regulation airline baggage, soft suitcase. The carry on bag this girl had was also not quite remarkable, it was a shoulder bag with a lot of paint dabbed on at strategic places, but not making any sense. A modern artist might interpret that as the calm waves an ocean creates or a soothing orangish river of lava flowing toward the sea. I'm no artist; leave alone modern artist, hence the bag shall remain, in my mind, a shoulder bag over which paint spilled.

Girl number 2, on the other hand was the one who gave me the education on globalisation. She too was carrying a regulation suitcase, hard plastic this time. Her carry on baggage was also cloth. The writing on it was in a language that was strangely familiar. The bag had a picture of a sunrise between two mountains. The square picture was divided into four quadrants, the bottom 2 quadrants were black, depicting the mountains and carried the writing. The top left quadrant was a bright orange indicating sunrise and the top right one was blue indicating night. A beautiful picture and that's probably why the girl picked the bag up in the first place. But the writing carried the surprise...

I squinted my eyes and jogged my tired mind before identifying the language as Hindi. My second language in school was Hindi, several of my friends are Hindi and the operational language in Dubai, where I worked for three years, is for practical purposes, Hindi. Having identified the writing, it took but a minute to read it. The writing read:


दिलदार बीडी नो: २०२
दाम कम, स्वाद उथ्थम
वितरक: निजामुद्दीन बीडी कंपनी 
दुलियाजान, मुर्शिदाबाद (पंजाब)

Translated, that is:
Dildar Beedi No: 202
Low price, supreme taste
Distributor: Nijamuddin Beedi Company
Duliajan, Murshidabad (Punjab)

I was blown to bits by this. A French girl in England holding a bag advertising a beedi from Punjab was such a stupid marketing strategy!!! Did the boffins at Nijamuddin Beedi Company think someone looking at the advert in England will hop onto a plane to India to buy their beedi? A beedi for heavens sake, who did they think we are, Rajnikanth? A few minutes of gaping open mouthed at the bag later, I realised NBC probably did not advertise, but it was globalisation at play here.

NBC probably didn't have a clue as to how the girl got the bag or what it's doing in the UK. For all you know, the owner of NBC probably hasn't stepped out of Duliajan. By some stroke of global networking, I suppose some visitor from Punjab left the bag in the house of the people he/she visited in the UK, who would have given the bag to carry some shopping to their neighbours, who in turn could have left it with the girl, it is a small world after all! Or quite simply the girl could have picked up the bag on her last visit to India (which is a little far fetched considering Punjab is not quite on the top of the list for 'foren' tourism).

In any case, NBC has presence in the UK and girl mostly likely thinks the letters form part of the artwork. Little does she know.

PS: I suppose you would have noted that the punch line for Diladar Beedi No: 202 is that it's cheap, agreed, but it also says that the taste is supreme...does tobacco have a taste? All I know is smoking makes you stink a stink that's not too different from a skunk, while a beedi makes you stink a stink that is not unlike a skunk, that's angry and has a serious gas problem after eating a diet of baked beans while it is eating raw garlic and onions.