"You see the same face every day but you may never know the name of the face" said one anonymous guy!
I was riding my motorbike at 9 AM on the road to my school today. I saw a couple of faces and remember them distinctly from my bicycle rides 10 years ago. 10 years was a long time. And 10 years ago, I was studying my tenth standard.
One of those faces was that of Rickshaw puller. Neither I asked his name nor did I talk to him! Because I never did. He was pulling the same rickshaw though it was down and dusted but engaged him. He did all kind of menial jobs - pulling the stones to furniture - everything! He did the job with the same kind of passion. There was no dearth of it. Suddenly, he looked at me. I hoped he recognized me. Alas! No. I questioned myself - why did he not smile at least? I was over beaming my smile to let him know that I recognized him but he did not.
The other face was that of a Shopkeeper. I, along with my friends, used to come to taste mouth watering Mirchi Bajjis and Mysore Bajjis! Even the thought of it is savoring! I stopped by and asked her to serve me a plate of each! As soon as I got the food in my hands I became indulgent!! Suddenly someone yelled my name as if he was going to hit me. That's part of our culture! It was my friend and we talked at length. We talked about how we used to come over here and fight over the payment. But the sad part was that the shopkeeper did not recognize us.
This threw me back. How can someone forget their favorite customers? How can they forget our faces who constantly traveled on the same route as theirs? Then it stuck me that I was not part of their lives and they were. One classic example was that I remember the rest room supervisor in the Qatar airways lounge at the airport. When I say hello to him, he never responded back with the same emotion. I remember because of my frequent Flys through the same route. But for him, there are many other frequent flyers. He is part of my life and my observation but I am not his because for him it does not matter. Then why should it matter for me?
I was riding my motorbike at 9 AM on the road to my school today. I saw a couple of faces and remember them distinctly from my bicycle rides 10 years ago. 10 years was a long time. And 10 years ago, I was studying my tenth standard.
One of those faces was that of Rickshaw puller. Neither I asked his name nor did I talk to him! Because I never did. He was pulling the same rickshaw though it was down and dusted but engaged him. He did all kind of menial jobs - pulling the stones to furniture - everything! He did the job with the same kind of passion. There was no dearth of it. Suddenly, he looked at me. I hoped he recognized me. Alas! No. I questioned myself - why did he not smile at least? I was over beaming my smile to let him know that I recognized him but he did not.
The other face was that of a Shopkeeper. I, along with my friends, used to come to taste mouth watering Mirchi Bajjis and Mysore Bajjis! Even the thought of it is savoring! I stopped by and asked her to serve me a plate of each! As soon as I got the food in my hands I became indulgent!! Suddenly someone yelled my name as if he was going to hit me. That's part of our culture! It was my friend and we talked at length. We talked about how we used to come over here and fight over the payment. But the sad part was that the shopkeeper did not recognize us.
This threw me back. How can someone forget their favorite customers? How can they forget our faces who constantly traveled on the same route as theirs? Then it stuck me that I was not part of their lives and they were. One classic example was that I remember the rest room supervisor in the Qatar airways lounge at the airport. When I say hello to him, he never responded back with the same emotion. I remember because of my frequent Flys through the same route. But for him, there are many other frequent flyers. He is part of my life and my observation but I am not his because for him it does not matter. Then why should it matter for me?
I can still avoid recognizing people but I can not. Some people remember everything and some people forget names of the people they frequently work with. It happens but again the warm hello to an unknown stranger is always a good habit.
"What set us apart from other animals is we got a brain which sees, hears, thinks, feels, remembers, dances.... What not!"
Thought provoking man.
ReplyDeleteBut I guess it is due to the fact that customers are part of their regular job and the see lot many of them everyday. But we go to few particular shops or places. We can recognise them easily as they are few but for them we are many. Restricition of human mind, I guess.
Yes... But again. It is true everywhere :)
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