Professional Siblings

In the day to day lives, I am sure all of us would have come across certain common traits amongst professionals of any kind of trade – and this trait would transcend all boundaries of caste, creed, religion or region. It is a much bigger thing than religious teachings or patriotism, and much more mysterious in nature which unites people of a profession. I wonder that how do the traits become distinct in the profession, when the people would not even have met each other across regions.Now with this introduction,I will directly embark on giving the facts to corroborate what I stated above.

I will begin with tailors, as this is festive season and they are the busiest lot at the moment. Now, any girl who gets her salwar-kurtas stitched by a tailor (readymade dresses would be hassle-free but do not satisfy the vanity of having the right fit), would be ready to swear, that be it a tailor in any part of the country, she would never get it completely ready on the date written on the receipt! That is something which she has to keep in mind while giving the dress at the tailor’s.So the best bet would be to go at least two days later to the shop and then too, it is not guaranteed that the dress would be complete,either some button or some seam would still have to be done, and by sheer luck, if the tailor has deigned to keep it ready, then there would it won’t fit and some or the other alteration would be needed which would would need another three days! So if she needs a dress for some special occasion, she should do it well in advance,providing all the buffer she can.

Now how can the clothes shopkeepers be behind the tailors. Most of the shopkeepers would be keen on selling their products (except in Bangalore where it is the other extreme – they seem to be not wanting to sell their product. Their philosophy – if you need it, you will anyways buy it, so why have the extra hassle of turning a prospective customer into a real customer!). So even if you have made your mind to do only window shopping, a good shopkeeper will entice you to the shop saying that they don’t charge for looking at their wares :-). Now you would think what harm can that do, but the trick lies in tapping your guilty conscience. Not many women would be so strong minded as to not feel guilty after being in the shop for long and the shopkeeper has spent so much of his time to bring out and show the wares.Here I am not talking of the modern day malls – I am talking of the regular shops which line the markets of India where the shopkeepers ask for what you are looking for and then show you what they have in store.

There are many other professions which have their special traits but the list is topped by the auto-rickshaw drivers.No matter whereever you want to go, there would be at least ten of them who would shake their heads as if you asked them to take you to such a downmarket place that it’s much below their standard. Sometimes you really feel like asking them where exactly do they want to go – to the moon? Then their habit of not having change money – they cannot accept even fifty paisa less from you if you are short of change but you are supposed to accept even nine rupees less because the fellow will simply make a face and say “no change”! Well one has to learn to live with that. After all, if everything went smoothly, then for one, there would have been no material for me to write all this and second, life would have been so bland. Don’t you agree?