Asking For A Polite Behavior…
Filed under: Behind the screen..., Very strange!!, craps ..., uuphh yeh life!!! — chapters @ 2:43 PM
Scenario 1:
You go to one city on a vacation, you roam around, you visit the city’s famous tourist places, you go for shopping in the city’s biggest shopping area, you eat at the city’s famous food joint and you find the city interesting; you fall in love with it almost instantly. After going back to your own place you keep on telling about how you enjoyed staying in the city, and how you find the people so welcoming, and how the unknown language spoken by them was so sweet to your ears even if you do not understand a single word of the entire conversation.
Scenario 2:
You go to the city because your company posted you there, you don’t get too much time to roam around apart from going to office and coming back to the place where you stay and call it “your room”, you visit the nearby bus sop to catch a bus and go to office daily, you go to the daily market near your place for the vegetable and grocery shopping, you eat at the office’s canteen or any food joint that is available near to your place which serves the most non-edible food you ever tried (forget about a decent vegetarian dish if you happen to be a vegetarian and the city happens to be where I am staying) and believe me or not you find the city disgusting; you start feeling the first kind of emotion which cannot be called love in any way, the very instant. You long to go back to your place and once back you want to forget your stay in the city as a nightmare which you never want to have again. Sometimes though you love to rant about how you survived there and how you found the people so selfish and how you were forced to learn the alien language as that is the only language people spoke there, even in the office, during any official meeting.
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AND you guessed it right, I am ranting now. After spending more than 3 years in Kolkata, at-least I cannot stop myself from ranting. People (Except few) here are kind of people who dance upon seeing money. If they see you are paying 200 for something without complaining then the next day they will ask you 500 for the same thing. Nothing is what you call a smooth-process over here if you are not ready to spend as much as they are demanding, even if it is almost same as getting bankrupt after spending that much. The way they behave is the most irritating thing. You go to a vegetable vendor, even if you are in the best of your moods, I give you my 100% guarantee that at the end you will get frustrated. They behave as-if they own us. In office, if you behave little saintly and extend your hand for helping somebody then be sure that you are going to be gulped down by the same fellow.
Yes, people here are too much proud for their heritage. But these are not the places where you go daily. And the place you spend maximum of your stay, makes you feel the instant need of resigning and running back to your Mom.
Now if you are wondering what exactly the thing that made me writing this post is, then say thanks to the flower vendors near my apartment for inspiring me. After coming to Kolkata, if anything in my behavior has changed then it is my temper; I have become short-tempered. Just a single person’s behavior in the morning can put me in one my worst moods for couple of days. And that very thing happened with me today. Normally I do my Puja with incent sticks and a diya. For some special occasions I buy flowers. As Bou is here, I buy her flower for daily Puja. Today, when I went to the flower vendor after the morning walk and asked him for 2 Rs worth loose flowers, he straight said “Chaar taka r niche kucho phool habe na” [You can't get loose flower worth below 4 Rs]. I expressed my astonishment as every day I buy 2 Rs worth flower only. But he simply said “Habena” [You can't get]. Okay fine, even if the rates have increased, he could have told me so, but the tone with which he addressed me, made my temper show its signs. I could have bought 10 Rs worth flower if he were not have made that disgusting face and showed me that attitude. I did not buy anything and returned home empty handed and told my mother to do her Puja without flower.
No intension of self praising, but I am soft spoken person. I behave very politely and give respect to everybody irrespective of the person’s position; He may be my manager or may be a rickshaw-puller. So is it wrong if I expect a more cordial answer from other people? I don’t think so. But here, people behave you like you are just not a human.
A city is not merely the pleasant things you get to see around when you visit. People staying in a city make what it is. You get a glimpse of the culture of a city from the behavior of the people belonging to it. There are monuments, temples, caves, beaches, market places, food joints, architectural beauties almost in every town you visit. It is just that they look different. I am not complaining about the dirt, filth, poverty, or the political Bandhs here. Being in India, you will get to see it everywhere, somewhere more, somewhere less. At the end of the day it won’t make any sense to you whether the Rabindra Setu, Victoria memorial, Esplanade or Botanical Garden was there at Kolkata or not. You will only remember how people behaved when you were there. And to speak of mine, I am very sorry, but it is not a very pleasant experience staying here.
