Great Self Respect People Had ; No place for greed was there ; Do good and get abused ;by Surinder Singh Grewal The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Opinions 26 September 2013 MIDDLE The urge to do something good for the poor or needy remains the passion with some Punjabi souls, perhaps a legacy of the liberal farming community instinct. Paradoxically, while doing a small favour for a noble cause, I received choicest of abuses in return, as opposed to the usual ‘thanks’. In the late 1970s, I was posted at Hoshiarpur after my selection for the post of a gazetted officer. My generosity level was elevated when Mr was replaced by Dr as a prefix and PAS after my name on the name plate. Thanking God through helping poor became a habit. Since my wife was on the family way and had gone to the village, I used to have dinner at a dhaba near the bus stand. It was famous for the delicious food served with fried dal being its speciality. My first dinner revealed the importance of the special fried dal when I saw a number of customers purchasing it in different types of containers for dinner. In front of every table, there was a crisp notice on the wall “Thali ke sath chamcha nahin milega.” (No spoon shall be provided with the thali). The hotel was charging Rs 5 per ‘thali,’ with an option to eat as much one wants. The servant at the dhaba informed me that in the thali system people eat more dal than chapattis and hence no spoon is provided. Black lentils and gram (Mahn Chole) dal, cooked on slow heat and fried with onion and pieces of ginger, tomato, garlic, green chillies and with the flavour of dhania was served with makki ki roti throughout the winter months. One late evening when I arrived for dinner, I was the only customer and the shop was about to shut. As I started with my meal, one more customer with half-torn, dirty clothes splashed with white wash and hands smeared with various colours entered the shop and asked for one thali. Perhaps he had come after finishing a white-wash job. The way he started eating it appeared as if he was desperately hungry like a wolf. I took pity on him. There was power failure and a petro max lamp was lit at the counter. While paying my bill, I told the manager to take the payment for that fellow as well. He charged for both of us thinking that either he was working for me or known to me. After stepping down from the hotel, I stopped at a ‘rehri’ parked in front of the hotel selling bananas. I purchased two and started eating, while sitting on the seat of my newly purchased Lambreta scooter. What was going to happen at the counter was my point of interest. This gentleman, I saw coming towards the counter after washing his hands. He took out from his pocket a piece of cloth in which he had wrapped a Rs 5 currency note. He extended that note towards the manager. I could see in the light of the petro max, the manager refusing to take the money and gestured with a finger that a man sitting there had already paid for him. The poor fellow did not budge and insisted that manager should take the payment as he did not know anybody here who could pay for him. There was a heated argument between them. The fellow was enraged because his self esteem was hurt. He wanted to pay and the manager would not accept. “I may be poor but am not a beggar”, he shouted but manager did not budge. Putting back the Rs 5 note in that piece of cloth, he got down murmuring from the shop and came towards the other side of the banana rehri, where his cycle with the tin can and the brush on the back was kept. The rehriwala asked him “What is the matter, you were very angry with Lalaji?” “Yar kamaal ki baat hai, naa jaan naa pehchaan koi sala, haramzada meri roti ke paise de kar chala gya…….” It is difficult to translate typical Punjabi abuses he gave but what he meant was that somebody not known to him and paid for his food. What is this nonsense, he must be an idiot, bloody fool and stupid. He publicly abused me and I was silently listening and digesting all his choicest abuses, considering them as dal makhni, taken without a spoon. Inserted from
Posted on: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 01:38:18 +0000
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