It was 8 pm, and the shopkeeper greeted me with a big smile when I entered the shop. “Boliye Madam?” He asked. (Tell me Mam)
I smiled back at him and asked for a packet of biscuits. There was a man with a kid in the shop too. “Hey, give us our things soon”, he said to the shopkeeper. He seemed to be in a hurry.
The kid was likely the man’s son as he looked at a cold drink bottle, arms extended, and repeatedly calling the cold drink towards him, “Baba, Baba”. They both were wearing clothes that looked old and weary. They had white dust all over them. He was a labourer working at a nearby construction site.
The smile that the shopkeeper gave me immediately turned grim when he turned towards the father and the kid. “You are wasting my time. “What do you want? Be quick, do not ask me one thing at a time.”
Then he turned again and said politely, “Madam, here is your biscuit packet. What else do you need? I was flushed. I had no problem waiting for the father and kid to finish with their order, but maybe the kind of attire we both were wearing made the shopkeeper judge our economic and social conditioning. I felt a stinging guilt about my privilege. Here was a man who apparently wanted to buy more stuff than I did, and he was treated improperly, and I was given respect.
“Give me 1 kg of rice and that Thanda (cold drink), and I will be on my way. We have work to complete.”
“It’s so late now, you still have work?” I interfered, surprised.
“Yes, Didi, Slab work is going on, so it goes on till late at night.”
His kid is still blabbering, looking at the cold drink. I playfully told the kid, “Thanda itni pasand hai aapko? (Do you like cold drinks so much?). He put his arms around his father shyly.
“Sir, please give them what they want, and I will wait. I am not in a hurry.” I told the shopkeeper. “Ji Madam,” he said, and packed things for the man.
“Ok, Didi, I will go now, I have to feed him too.” He smiled and left hurriedly.
— — — — —
Who decided whom we should bestow our respect on and whom we should not? Do our clothes do the trick, or has our empathy gone down the drain?
