Angrezi Mein Kahte Hain Ke I Love You…Aur Panjaabi Mein Kahte Hain, Teri To…

Do you remember the film 1982 Hindi Film Khud-daar

Now I will put forth to you the initial Lyrics of the Song from this very film that captured the audience ears during that period.

Angrezi Mein Kahte Hain Ke I Love You
Gujaraati Maa Bole Tane Prem Karuun Chhuun, Chhuun, Chhuun

Bangaali Mein Kahte Hain Aami Tumaake Bhaalo Baashi
Aur Panjaabi Mein Kahte Hain, Teri To,

Mr Amitabh Bachchan is seen romancing his very pretty heroin Ms Parveen Babi. On screen he might have expressed his love through different languages of India. Credit goes to the Playback Singer the Best always Late Shri Kishore Kumar and also to the great Lyricist Shri Majrooh Sultanpuri.

The need for me to mention about this very song is not for giving any opinion on the merits of the song.

It is only to stress that in reality it is not so simple to speak at random using various languages. India, as we all know is a land of many languages. Hence we tend to have few such professions or businesses wherein we have a set of individuals working together who come from various states. More over there are some team of professionals who can speak, read or write only their mother tongues and are not very conversant with common languages like English or Hindi.

I work in such a line of business where I have a team which has uncommon languages of understanding. I work with a SPA at a senior position. I have Spa Therapists coming from north east states like Manipur or Mizoram who can understand a bit of English and absolutely do not know Hindi. I have also got therapists from interior rural parts of Maharashtra who know Marathi or Hindi and little bit of English. They can ask or answer certain basic questions in English or Hindi related to the clients they treat. They are excellent in what they do that can be judged through the customer post therapy feedbacks. However, on regular basis I as their leader need to indulge with them in group discussions and brain storming sessions so as to get their inputs, guide or assist them in certain issues for better outputs.

Now as they have diverse language understandings to conduct such discussions is not a simple task for me. I need to first exclaim to each one of them in the language they understand such as Marathi, Hindi or English. Now when I put forth what is in my mind then they speak out their views in the language they can speak and of course that I can understand. Once I comprehend in whatever bits and pieces, I need to then announce it to others who do not understand what the person has just said. So and on the interactions continue to achieve some common understanding. Simply speaking these meetings are not so simple to conduct.

Leave aside such brainstorming sessions there are times wherein I have to appreciate someone before the team, I need to put my known language oratory skills at their best so each and everyone feels the importance of the appreciation including the employee who is being praised.

Due to the language barrier the therapists also sometimes have a downturn in their internal confidence which is a great threat to our line of business.

Spa is a destination where the clients pay for their relaxation and rejuvenation and it is their right to get the best of service. Success of any SPA after all marketing or sales efforts depends more on the factor of ‘TOUCH’.

Meaning how the therapist renders the therapy so as the client is completely delighted.

I always believe that a Spa therapy is given BY TWO HANDS AND ONE HEART. 

Hence, it is of paramount importance to have my therapists put their heart into the work they do.They must have the optimum confidence.

This can only be done through regular team meetings to achieve complete team involvement, building enthusiasm and ownership of responsibility etc. I take special efforts that each therapist learns common languages such as English or Hindi. The following are few initiatives I have evolved so that they learn Hindi or English. All these initiatives I conduct on one to one basis:

1)      To procure an old or new any reputed Hindi or English Newspaper as per the common language they need to learn.

2)      Read at least ten lines at home and marking the words they do not know.

3)      Reading those very lines before me and asking me the meaning for the words they have marked and its pronunciation.

4)      I then ask them to converse with me in whatever broken language they can assemble for the language unknown.

5)      I bolster their confidence by applauding on their efforts. Sometimes even give them prizes.

What have I achieved through this effort?

I have now got a set of professionals who are confident and take the effort to converse in common languages like Hindi or English. They now feel there are no language barriers. Each one of them is just so enthusiastic and so very associable that I am so very amazed. In Hindi a member of team is known as a KHILADI…So I must say…

It may be Angrezi or Hindi… I have a Very HAPPY & CONFIDENT KHILADI.