Sunday, April 15, 2007

There's Gold In Them Thar Classifieds

I'm always told "things are changing in India!" and then, as proof, I am driven over to some generic mall or a coffeeshop. My measurement of change comes from one question: "has the internet wreaked havoc here yet?" (It has. Teenagers no longer have to pay for music and porn.)

But what about people living in small towns and villages? What does the internet mean to them? Before I came across this classifieds site, I would have said "probably nothing". I would be so wrong.

Now, I am not a "ha ha, dehati bozos are funny" kinda guy. Maybe it's because I've lived in dehat for many, many years and still think of myself as a dehati. (Cue in Don McLean's "Castles in the air") But what can I say, there are some real howlers in those classified ads and I can use a howl right now. So let me point out some of the "24 carrot" posts.

1. But dude, how would you make out with her?

2. God may have given names to all the animals, but the punks in Sultanpur weren't paying attention. This section is JUST FREAKING AWESOME. I love it. There's a dude who wants a "dog bread" called "Dabarman". Then there's the man with "one ox, six teeth".

3. Also check out Sultanpur's budding pop lyricist, who starts his poetic "Requirement of Cow" with "I WANNA COW".

After you've done chuckling or even ROFLing, pay attention to what rocks the boat in Sultanpur. Inverters, cars, TVs, cellphones. Things are indeed changing.

So who wants to buy a "cement colour" ox?

13 comments:

Tabula Rasa said...

how *do* you come across this stuff?!!

ggop said...

Thanks! Good links.
I wonder is the english keyboard just way easier to use than the hindi keyboard? The typos for breed etc. can simply be avoided if the ad is posted in hindi.
gg

GhostOfTomJoad said...

Wow! this is quite revolutionary. The sheer number of ads suggests that people in small towns and villages are actually able to do good business through the Net...which is very impressive.

But, on a lighter note, this mother cow should be one worried chick: "Sale of Calf Having 4 Teeth She would be deliver within 7 month"

:-)

To repeat TR's question, where in hell do you get all this? :-)

Anonymous said...

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km said...

Ghost: That's revolutionary indeed. But I do want to see a "kisan's" IM log. ("Ka ho, bhaiya, LOL kar rahe ho ki kheti kar rahe ho?")

TR: It's a patented process :)

ggop: have you tried blogger's Hindi font feature?

Raghu: blow our minds with a URL, man.

MockTurtle said...

Hahaha awesome!
One of the cow guys (Anon000003237003) simultaneously put up an ad to help ram shiromani of manapur sell his murrah buffalo (with helth) and one for syam dev pandey of chitawan who seeks to procure a murrah buffalo (with helth).
Couldn't he have been a samaritan and introduced them to each other?

km said...

MT: what's the murrah with you? An honest Man can't broker for both parties?

Dilip D'Souza said...

km, what can I say over laughing my behind off? Just don't put my behind up for sale on the Sultanpur classifieds, unless you can advertise it as funnily.

km said...

Senor D'Souza: I figured I better get to this website before you walked into Sultanpur and started blogging all the funny signboards and t-shirts..:D

Unknown said...

I was bloghopping to find something funny-glad I stumbled upon this riot!

km said...

OK, Girl from Ipanema: Thanks!

I got a question for ya: which is the definitive version of *that* song?

Unknown said...

this, specifically this, should work if you've real player..

Joy Forever said...

This is freaking Hilarious!!! People around me are looking over their cubicle partitions now to see why I'm laughing myself to death.