Super markets
are not my forte. I prefer the grocery shops. The main reason is that they
don’t pack every item in the polythene bags. You can take your own bags and
from the jute sacks filled with condiments, your bags will be filled to the
right measure. This way dust bins need not be stuffed with unwanted
plastics endangering our fragile
eco system. Secondly the imprint of the
childhood days when every grocery purchase was accompanied by country sugar
mixed with fried grams had still retained my soft corner for the shop owners
even though they don’t follow the good practice now!! Thirdly we need not queue
up for payment with the “no eye contact” zombie super market cashiers and if in
a hurry you can make a request for a fast forward payment with the shop keeper
who can manage the situation with other customers and oblige you.
That particular
day as guests were to arrive at home I finished my shopping in a hurry and
tried to lift the bags to the auto. But it was beyond me and the lady at the
cash who was watching called a person from inside and asked him to put the bags
in the auto. Sitting in the auto I thanked him and pressed a 5 rupee coin
making sure that my action was not witnessed by the owner.
“No madam” he
politely refused and hurried back to the shop.
“He must be
upset. I should have tipped him a tenner” I told myself. Or the lady must be
paying her assistants well to refuse a tip! Or it might be a business tactics
to increase the sale. Whatever might be the reason I was happy about ladies
setting up quality standards in all fields including a grocery shop!!
I missed the
lady for quite some time in the shop. When I saw her again and enquired about
her absence she informed me that her husband got into an accident and had
fractured his leg. She had to be with him in the hospital and brought him back
home just yesterday.
“That man does
not listen at all……. I always advise him never to over speed in his bike which
invariably falls on deaf ears …… now it is not just that he is mourning all the
time but the whole family had to bear with all his lamentations……Even with a
head ache he can make a big fuss and now with a fracture, it is the end of the
world for all of us”
Next time when
I happened to visit the shop she informed me that he was better but the bandage
had to be still there and he would be back to normal very soon. I was happy for
that lady.
When I was
again in the grocery shop I saw the lady stepping out of an auto with a
well-dressed man who was limping. She slowly guided him to the shop and seated
him at the cash counter.
“Now don’t run
around the shop.” She said to him “People are there to take care of everything.
“Murugaiah…..you are responsible for him….Now I will finish an important bank
work and come back soonl”
With intention
of wishing the owner's husband well when
I went near the cash counter I had the shock of my life! The man who assisted
me with my grocery bags the other day was indeed her husband and the co-owner
of the shop!!
His folded
lungi and the all-pervading pungent grocery smell hath indeed led me astray!
What a silly person I was! Had the audacity to tip the owner with a 5 rupee
coin!! And that man’s respectful reply to my misguided assumption taught me a
lesson in magnanimity!
