'Eating out' is eating me on.  − 27 January, 2008

A couple of days ago, I, along with my colleague, was at one of pizza joints in Chennai to have our dinner. When we reached there, I spotted an old person coming towards us with a bag of Incense Sticks packets. I just ignored him and moved away, I do it most of the times in Chennai as I do not know Tamil and my experience of interacting with Auto-rickshaw drivers tells me avoid interaction with anyone in Tamil, unless it is inevitable. Certainly, this was not in that category. I went directly to the Pizza joint. A few minutes later, my colleague joined me (she was making payment to the Auto-rickshaw driver), she was carrying a pack of Incense Sticks. I looked at her bemused. She sensed it.

She told " Didn't you hear what that man was saying?"

The expression in my eyes conveyed to her " How could I.. I do not know Tamil."

" He was saying in Hindi that he had nothing to eat and if I can buy.....so I bought one pack, though I have more than enough supply of incense sticks at home."

Two things, he was speaking Hindi (our mother tongue) and he was not begging directly. His face flashed in front of my eyes. He was different, he did not pursue us for long. He did tell something twice, but I was too engrossed and pre-occupied . He might be a genuine person in need.

By that time, the menu was open in front of me, and I placed order for two pizzas, pasta and Coke. Both pizzas seem tempting on menu, so wanted to taste each of them. Surly  too much for two of us, as the other person has already declared that she was not going to eat much.  

After half an hour, we gave up. No. Cannot eat more. Two slices of pizza of still left on table. Half of the  pasta unfinished.  I asked for bill. Rs. 560. I put six hundred rupee notes and we walked out of the restaurant. Forty rupees, tip. 

After coming out of the restaurant I looked around, the man (Incense Sticks Seller) had been here only. But he was not there. He must have gone for dinner.

I looked at the incense stick pack which was with me in my laptop bag, Rs. 20, yes It was not of more than that. His margin would have been 4-5 rupees. Dinner in 4-5 rupees? He was saying that he had nothing to eat.

Must be lying or he must have had sold some more packets. But how many, he was carrying not more than 20 packets.

Some thoughts sprang in mind. I did my best to ignore them. But now, the pizza and the pasta were anything but delicious. 

Comments:

pepero (January 27, 2008. 06:30am)

when i traveled to india, the most difficult part of my trip was dealing with the extreme poverty. having lived in the states my entire life, india was a complete culture shock to me. i remember once i was riding around delhi in auto rickshaw and stopping at an intersection waiting for the light to change. when a very thin woman in rags approached the rickshaw and reached in and dug her nails into my arm till she drew blood and stared at me with utter disdain. i was so shocked i didn't say or do anything but just look into her deep sunken eyes.

i thought a lot about my karma because a stranger told me once that i had very good karma because i had the money and means to leave india whenever i pleased and escape the poverty. on the other hand he would never have enough money to travel to the states.

on another occasion i recollect going to the sheraton hotel for brunch. when i saw a valet crash a rolls royce into a mercedes. he was fired on the spot and his manager scolded him and said he could work his entire life and never repay the damage that he had caused. later, i felt really guilty after my friend and i spent $50 on brunch at the sheraton. i remember everything was priced in usd not rupees. my brunch cost as much as what some people survived on each month in india. :(