I was invited to Citibank's 200 years anniversary dinner last night at the E&O Hotel, Penang. The cocktail starts at 6.30pm and I was late coming directly from work and arrived only at 7pm. There was already about 40 guest and about 20 Citibankers. My relationship manager , Mr P came to out to receive me and pull me into the crowd. One of the female citibanker walk over to me and introduced herself as J.
From then on, I was stuck for 30 minutes with several female citibankers coming one after another to promote their Citibank's product to me. Well, I just hearing without listening and talking without actually speaking. I drank the wine and the whiskey during the cocktail standaround. I was saying Hi! to everyone who greets me. I was actually very tired after a trip to Bangladesh and having reach home at 11.30pm. The tiredness was all over my face.
The dinner starts at 7.30pm at the room just opersite the cocktail room. Yeah , before I forget. My drinks of wine and whiskey was served by some SYT ( Sweet Young Thing) and they could not wait to serve you so that they can earned commission from the total sales. I think this is one of the sales gimmicks to get the Citibank customers to drink and be merry. Okay, back to the dinner. On the table, there was the name tags telling who sits where and with whom. This was a normal routine when comes to a formal dinner.
I was put besides their Area Retail Head, A and a mid aged Citibanker, T who was with the consumer business group. Before she starts her selling talk ,I engage her to talk about life and her passions. I have to lead the subject , otherwise, I will be suffering for the next two hours. I have enough sales talks for the night. I have ordered chicken as my main course and it was excellent. The soup, the appetizer, the main course, the dessert was marvellous and excellent.
Recently, E&O conducted a Master Chef competition and there were severak good chef in the competition and I think some of them have joined E&O as their chef. The tood was excellent and the drinks were plentiful. I was getting tired but I could still enjoy the food and keep talking to the female Citibanker, T. i talk about destiny, the Buddhist philosophy , the Dharma , Ajhan Chad , Ajhan Brahm and the Dalai Lama. She was listening intensely. When I talk about yoga, she told me that she was an athlete when she was young and she compete in Tae Kwan Do ( a korean martial art) and she was a sea games , silver and bronze medallist.
She told me that she has not be practicing the martial art and her flexibility and agility is getting stiff . She can still kick but not like before and she is too busy to exercise . Everyday, she is working hard for her money and take care of her only daughter.
My conversation with her keeps her interested until until 10pm where I take my leave . The remaining guest were drinking and chatting away. I was extremely tired already and I got on my way home.
Looking back at the dinner, all the drinking and talking and so much noise , I just wonder it is real or a make belief world. It is all an illusion that we are happy drinking and eating. with strangers. Someone starts talking about running a marathon, hiking the hilly peaks in Malaysia and getting inspriation from people's claps and supports. Fake, fake , fake . It is a fake smile in a illusionary world. Who are we really are? enjoying the process through life or living in a fantasy world , laughing , eating and talking.
Namaste.
No comments:
Post a Comment