I love showing off my Bangalore to international guests, and Commercial street is one of the biggest draw for sighs and happy exclamations from them. It gives me a child-like pleasure to see them gaze around in wide eyed wonder at the colours and hues of scarves, shawls and stoles draped over rods in shop fronts, to see them feel the cloth and exclaim at the 'cheap' rates! The jewelry from the Silver Shop is always a big hit, and the sequined bags sold on the lane opposite Transit never fails to make us stop and stare. We wander through the little known bye lanes and hop, skip and dart down OPH Road and marvel at the flavours of Gujjily.
So it was that when my latest guest, a lady from UK came, I took her shopping for curtains. The little store on Dickenson road had just what we wanted, but not enough panels, so we agreed to return the next day to pick up our order. When we came there, we were informed by the young store hand that the extra panels were yet to arrive and he didnt know when they would either. We were disappointed. To add salt to the wound, he cheerfully informs us that we may not even get the shade we had ordered, and that if we returned at 8.30pm, we could take a chance at getting what we wanted.
I argued with him, that if he had told us this yesterday, we would not have walked all the way over from Gujjily on this hope and we would have tried our luck elsewhere. To this he states "then this is not the shop for you, please leave." I was shocked! Never had I met such callous attitude from a shop hand.
"Be nicer to your customer," I told him, irritated. My friend in the meanwhile had collected her bags and moved to the doorway in confusion.
" I bow down only to Allah," he declares,"not to you!"
I was speechless; I hurried to follow my friend who had already made it out of the doorway by now, confused and maybe even a little bit scared, when the elderly gentleman sitting at the cash counter by the door stopped me. "Please madam, dont leave. I apologise on his behalf." I could only stare at him; I was still in a state of shock, and to my horror, found myself fighting back tears. I never cry in front of strangers so this was even more disconcerting.
"Why does he have to use the Religion Card?" I asked this gentleman, "We are cousins in faith, and I have many Muslim friends - in fact, some of my own family members - by blood and marriage, are Muslims and they are very much a part of our family. We have just given good business to a Muslim shop in OPH road, in fact. Why does this boy have to talk to us this way? Why is he so rude?"
The boy in question, he must have been in his early 20s, butted in trying to justify himself, to which I firmly stated "I will NOT talk to you."
My friend and I left that shop, crossed over back to main street Commercial Street and found our curtains, at a cheaper price, and in another shop, also run by Muslims. This 'bhaiya' I'm glad to say, was courteous and helpful and even though we had to wait nearly 2 hours more to get all 8 panels, we didnt mind.
What hurt most was that my happy bubble of 'wonderful Commercial Street' was now coloured by 'Muslim stores' or not. Was it worth it to that store hand, I wonder, to declare something so unnecessary at that point of the conversation? What prompted him - was he trying to impress a foreigner with his ardent faith? He only succeeded in frightening her and in the bargain lost an Indian customer as well.
I miss my 'old' Bangalore.., where courtesy was the norm and every customer was a guest.
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