22nd August'08
Around 15 people coming home Sunday evening for dinner.Lots of preparations.Well,I thought to start from buying vegetables.Second thought was , “No God, I can’t face that snobbish shop owner who have the least grace in his voice and actions while dealing with his customers and I was also not sure of the timings when only his cheerful wife is available. But then he is the one who keeps the fresh and the best stuff around. So I had to bear him.I was greatly relaxed not to find him when I entered the shop. I took my leisurely time to choose and buy vegetables .A good experience…I left the shop in a happy mood.
Just after that was the CD-DVD library where I was suppose to return one rented DVD. Oops, I had forgotten to bring that .Still, I entered the store and apologized to the owner and promised him the dvd return in an hour. He was very gentle and appeasing while agreeing to my request and without a single complain. Thought on my mind was...what a gentleman!! What good level of customer understanding.
While returning home, I received call from Dheeraj informing about his official dinner outside and hence no cooking food for him. I felt lazy about cooking for only myself as Charvi’s food was already prepared.And hence my next stop was Pani-puri-chat shop.I had one plate pani-puri and ordered for one chat.Awaiting the same, my attention moved on to the guy who was standing exactly opposite to me.Tall, fair, well dressed formally with good taste of trouser-shirt-tie combination, neatly parted hair, and his company’s identity card hanging from his neck. Hmm..seemed to be a corporate guy. Appeared to be little shy, but sometimes..its real fun to observe people who are these kinds, shy and introverts. To interrupt my analysis, his mobile rang and while he was trying to pull out his phone from his trouser pocket, a packet of cigarettes fell down. Next thought was…Oh God…He is a smoker ?Seems to be an educated lad..and see what..he is a smoker, I hate smokers!!! But hey…wait a minute..do I really hate smokers….my mom’ father, my brother in law, many of my good friends….they all smoke and I don’t hate them….so that means..I don’t hate smokers..but I definitely hate smoking. My chaat arrived…I had it and there I go back on the road leading me home…
While striding, my attention shifted to the butchery shop which was on the same side of road where pani-puri wala was.I had been on this road hundreds of time in my 2 and a half years of stay in Hyderabad and had seen this shop almost nearly for the same number of times. But for the first time, a shriek cry of a hen/chick coming from inside made me stand still on the road.I peeped into the shop more anxiously to see what was going to happen to the ill-fated life which was entangled inside, although, back of my mind I knew it would be killed and cut, being inside, for only that reason. My mind struggled for quite some time making it difficult for me to take even a single step further. But because it would have been dreadful for me to see such slaughter, I forced myself to move ahead with all gloomy thoughts about that helpless life.
I reached my apartment building and awaited around 5 minutes for the lift along with three other people doing the same. We all entered the lift and stood silently for the entire journey towards reaching our respective floors. One man stood facing the door with his eyes stuck on the floor. One woman kept on moving her right hand bangles with her left hand at regular intervals of adjusting her saree and her purse one after other and did all this without looking at any one else in the lift. Third person, a man again… was pretending to be the busiest amongst all by repeatedly trying to call someone with his mobile and disconnecting it without even waiting for the service provider to connect his call. And there was me, sometimes looking at all of them one by one and sometimes gazing out of the glass of the capsule lift which provided the scene of the vast lake located in the heart of the city.Doing all this, thought which rugged my mind was about the silence inside. There was a time, my childhood, when we use to greet every other person we met on our society roads with Namaste, hello and hi respective to their age and relation. And now…look at us..staying in the same building…..and behaving like aliens..Keep aside the talk of being members of the same apartment,I have seen people behaving the same way in offices as well…I sometimes wonders..is it some kind of compelling effect of the lift which makes people silent as soon as it opens its arms for them or is it some kind of social manner which keep not only the strangers but known people too, away from communicating.
Well…enough of the merry go round ride I had today with varied kinds of thoughts….i need to relax for sometime and get back to my normal routine.
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