I was at the grocery store hunting for mushrooms and maple sauce. (I have come to believe that I will have to bring maple syrup from my trips to Hyderabad or Madras if I ever want to eat pancakes for breakfast.) I found 3 packets of mushrooms (they’ve suddenly disappeared from the supermarket shelves) and picked them up. After I gave up on the maple syrup, I decided to go to the express checkout counter. The board said, “10 items or less, cash only”. I was third in line and waited as the people ahead of me completed their billing. A couple stood behind me and two places ahead of me was a lady with a cart load of groceries. The lady behind me said to the man, “This is an express checkout counter and that lady has so many items” to which the man replied, “Oh come on, this is India. What did you expect? To have things like they are abroad” I was rather shocked to hear him say that. The couple looked Indian, maybe it was an NRI couple, but there was no doubting the “I” factor.
The lady at the counter was very polite to the customer and asked her to stand in the regular queue as this one was an express counter. The lady apologized and moved to the next counter. Then the man behind me shoved the three items he was carrying in front of me and told the lady at the counter, “I only have 3 items. Can’t you bill me first?” I turned around and said, “So do I, do you mind?” (Maybe I do look like a behenji, but that doesn’t mean he could just get away with anything.) He immediately said, “Oh well, there’s no need to make such a big issue about it. I was just asking.” Talk of double standards!! We’re all in an express checkout counter. Why did he even think the lady would let him in ahead of me? And if he thought it was OK to do what he did, then why did he bother commenting on the lady who was ahead of me? I really had half a mind to turn around and slap the man, but my good upbringing came in the way. If the bloke knows what its like abroad, what’s stopping him from behaving the same way here? Is it an Indian way of life, a mentality: to have double standards? I wonder!!
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11 comments:
Ya, some people take things for granted. Similar things have happened to me, in the long queue we had at PU to make STD, back in the old days. It is all about courtesy.
Oh tell me about that. People used to think I had no business standing in that queue because I went home so often anyway. Like one thing had anything to do with the other!!! :)
What you say is soo true...people never like it when others get ahead of them and still they try and do the same thing in the queue...
yeah. I was at the railway ticket booking counter once and a guy walked in and went straight to the counter. When someone objected, he turned around and said, 'Oh, is this the queue? You should've told me!" And I was like"Oh puhleeeeeeze"
So very true. To quite a few around us, the world starts and ends with them. It is all about them and none else. They would do whatever they want in whatever way they wish and expect the others not to question them. Sad... Very sad.
A few months ago, I boarded this flight and was searching for my seat. Saw this guy sitting in my seat. I told him that he was sitting in the seat allotted for me. He said "No. This is my seat". I was confused. I re-checked the seat number in my ticket. I was correct. I explained it to him. He stared at me for a while and then said "No problem. You can sit in that seat", pointing to another seat. I was shocked, "Dude, you may not have any problem, but it is somebody else's seat. I cannot sit there". He stared at me some more and said "Well, that is my seat". I was shocked. Why would someone behave this way? He could have very well asked me in the first place if I would mind him taking the seat allotted to me. Why should he act the way he did. People always surprise me with their rudeness.
[P.S: g'man and raaga, does PU by any chance mean Pondicherry University?]
@ Inder: Yup it does!! Someday I shall blog about my time there :)
absolute double-standards....
u shud've gone ahead and given him that tight slap :)
Swathi: Hindsight is always 20/20 :)
Great to see you here as well :) I think both of us have very strong links. This is the third site. I'm looking forward to meeting you real soon.
hey, u never told us that this thing happened the other day!! I would have loved to give a piece of my mind to that guy....anyways this will be india.....never practise what u preach!
I started to tell you and then we started figuring out where to go and I do remember I said, "I got stuff for my next post" :)
yea, u did tell me that....but i presumed it would be about the absence of maple syrup in bangalore or how two packets of mushrooms were replaced by two more packets, after u had picked the first two :)
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