Friday, October 18, 2019

The fragrance of Respect

#148
Trust me, nobody loves a friend or relative in our times; our digital minds in 2019 timelines have narrowed down to “ME, My Wife, and my Children.” And in my case: I, me, myself. But respect is a very important thing, I explore what it means to have earned respect or notoriety in this post.
            Dr. Kiruba is a dentist and I have been his patient for a decade now. Each time I am on the dental chair we have a nice banter; he is a FB friend and he does read these blog posts once in a while. He treats me with a lot of respect; showers free medicines and mouthwashes after consultations that the medical representatives leave him with as samples. As for me, I like this flow of bonhomie and any time I visit his clinic, it feels like re-connecting with a long lost friend which does my poor ego a lot of good. Like the good doctor, these days I earn the respect of my fellow beings from the vegetable grocer, waiters at Vishranti, regular beach-goers and generally wherever I frequent. I have long realized that words and even body language don’t endear one to the rest of the world as much as an ability to trigger good vibes – a simple smile and few words of assurance is more than good enough if you know how to add a listening component to it.
            There were two incidents last week that got me feeling great. I sent “Happy Saraswati puja” greetings to a dozen friends on Whatsapp. One fellow blogger from Rediffiland wrote: Thanks for the wishes, Goddess Saraswati has blessed you in abundance.  The next day I was chatting with my cook as the conversation veered towards how I employed Meera, as I reminisced, “First she never wanted to work for a bachelor. I had to cajole her saying that I will keep the pressure cooker with rice and dhal and all she had to do was 20 min of work. But once she understood me, she was the first to pay me a compliment that she felt totally secure and safe working for me.” Thangam is a woman of few words as she spontaneously said, “Anyone who doubts your character must be a sick person.”
            Let’s see how lack of respect works. My house-owner is a Sindhi woman who has 8 houses in the city for rental incomes. The house I am staying resembles more a candle palace that Duryodhana conjured for the Pandavas – the roof leaks to rains, the tiles are 4 decades old, the doors are fragile flimsy. Everyone from the street vendor to the laundry man to the milk maid told me when I shifted from M90 to M91: My god, it’s a pothole of a house and terrible miserly house-owners. All of them cannot resist this byline: they are Sindhis and what better can you expect?? Within three months I realized that I was sold a dummy. I made a spare-key for my cook which costed me Rs. 500. I vacate this premise next month and do you know what I will do with the spare key? I will just wash it down the flush or fling it from the terrace; even if I had a barely handshaking relation I would have volunteered this key to the owners. This is what disrespect is – they don’t get anything friendly from me.
            Again for the opposite: I sold M90 to Mr. Pandian who is one of my most reliable of friends. I called him today saying, “Sir, I am planning to buy an apartment in Palavakkam. But before signing the deal I want you to take a look and advise me since you are a lot smarter.” He said, “Sathya, I am in Guwahati now, back to Chennai on Sunday. Meet the builder and negotiate but don’t sign on till I give you an approval. We will go to the premise on Wednesday.”  

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