Lets imagine a supermarket. Ever wondered what goes on behind the shiny, attractive "you definitely need me" items placed on beautifully decorated and carefully labelled shelves? No? Not your fault. You were probably too stressed convincing yourself about items that were not the key to your survival. I will definitely not go deeper and describe the torture that the spirits of those "not purchased" items bestow on you. In fact when I visit one I am fully convinced that clothes and accessories are indispensable. And no. Food and other groceries can't replace them. That is if you aren't speaking about red velvet pastry or chocolate truffle pastry.
I, a shopper, like you go through these difficult days quite often. One fine day just as I was going through the dark process of making a choice between food grains and the latest Forever 21 top I met a girl. Her name was Dash. A not very tall, bespectacled girl of my age dressed in a mustard casual henley top and denims. She worked at the store and helped me get a discount on food grains. We spoke to each other and decided to hang out the next day. She seemed to be a nice, sweet and innocent girl. The more I came to know her the more I wanted to be her friend. The more I heard from her the stronger I felt our bond grow. Dash had dreams. She wanted to travel the world. She wanted to quit her present job for a better one. She worked hard all day at the store so that she could go home early and prepare herself for her dream job. This year she had almost cleared her dream exam. But nepotism does exist. Next year would be her fifth and final attempt. She never let her dreams be a hinderance at work and performed all duties at the store with utmost sincerity. She had a heart of gold and never wanted to harm anyone but the store keeper. For the last few evenings she looked disturbed and complained of an inveterate headache. She looks drained everyday. But nowadays she is not just drained of energy, she is also drained of hope and everything nice. I am worried. She tells me everything and I just thought if you would be interested in the story of her supermarket.
It was a medium sized super-market located at a busy street in the outskirts of J city. Around five hundred to six hundred people frequented the market on normal days. The numbers soared to over eight hundred on festivals and other holidays. The locality belonged to the poor and middle class people and so did the market. Most of the people who visited the store were illiterate and had to be helped with the labels. The store had two owners, one a local hypocrite who wanted to please authorities by showing off his pseudo concern for the poor and the other a cunning, shrewd Rajasthani baniya who was extremely profit minded and would not stop at anything when there was a question about profits. The hypocrite was not interested in the plight of the store. He just wanted to secure a coveted position at Super-Market Regulatory Authority somewhere in the faraway mainland. The other partner was just as bad. He wanted profits at any cost. Sometimes at the cost of fleecing customers. He gave dubious instructions to his employees and chewed out anyone who got into trouble for following them. He also secretly lauded the crooked employees who managed to stoop as low as him. Cheating people and being a saint in front of those very same people were his superpowers. "I owe everything to the goodwill of my customers," He would repeat like a parrot.
Dash had never met the owners of the store. Their instructions were passed on to the store keeper in the form of a written handbill from time to time. The store had a total of eight employees. It was headed by the store keeper, Mr. Gendalal. A dark, ugly, balding, irritated young man. When I saw him he didn't look young. But Dash insisted by saying that he was unmarried and not fifty yet. I believe her. Dash was supposed to be second to him. Something like the assistant store keeper. But till date she has never been given her rightful authority as the assistant store keeper. It was because Mr. Gendalal felt something special for Miss Chameli Devi. Their relationship cannot be defined easily. Little things that one did for another made their relationship popular in the store. During lunch Mr Gendalal would empty all his favourite items into Miss Chameli's plate just because they were her favourite too. If the item was not a special favourite of Miss chameli then he would take them into his own plate. In times like these his personal preferences didn't matter. He openly complimented her for everything, looks, "nature", work etc. Now Miss Chameli Devi behaved a little differetly. Might be because of all the importance she got or maybe she was wired that way. I met her twice at the store. She roams about with an air of authority. When I didn't know the store owners I thought she must definitely be one amongst them. But Dash said "no". I asked again and got a"no" again. Miss Chameli Devi was gifted in a different sort of way. A medium sized, young, well groomed lady. She smiled whenever she met anyone. She smiled at me too the first day we met. Thankfully ever since my childhood I was taught not to give in to smiles from strangers quickly. Otherwise I would have ended up buying that expired milk carton. I know many who have. Dash doesn't do that to the store keepers dismay. She can't. She once tried selling a new product and got an answer like "I don't know the manufacturers of this product. How do I believe them?" She basically wasn't good with people. The store wasn't her place. Then there were other people around in the store. Mr Bhayankar Tapori, the overweight cashier at the store, and a staunch supporter of favoritism. By favoritism I mean he wanted to be the storekeeper's favourite. He never left any stone unturned, from complimenting Miss Chameli Devi to screaming at Dash in the crowded market, he did everything. Then there was Bimar Singh uncle who was forever sick. I still don't know what role he was supposed to play in the running of the market. But Bimar uncle was too sick to work. Oh! I forgot to mention about Akbaar chacha. He had all the information. If he thought something was missing, he would drive you nuts until you gave away the missing piece of information. Last but not the least were Chand bhai and Chupchap mausi. They were the cleaners of the store and good friends of Dash.
It was a dreary November morning when I heard the announcement. The hypocrite store owner had cooked up yet another nasty scheme. He had managed to convince the baniya too this time. "More people will come to our store this way. It will be good advertisement for our store." must have been what he had said. A scheme which offered new items in return of old items. Any item. Whether bought from this store or someplace else would just be exchanged for a new one. "Brothers and sisters, with the help of this scheme I would like to encourage all you people to come and buy from our store instead of going to the middle man or the black market. I wish to convey this message to the whole J city that this market is for everyone. We do not differentiate people on any basis." was what he said to win over the council. All store employees were perplexed when they received a handbill describing the scheme. They were confused. "Simply give away new items?"they couldn't believe.
I, a shopper, like you go through these difficult days quite often. One fine day just as I was going through the dark process of making a choice between food grains and the latest Forever 21 top I met a girl. Her name was Dash. A not very tall, bespectacled girl of my age dressed in a mustard casual henley top and denims. She worked at the store and helped me get a discount on food grains. We spoke to each other and decided to hang out the next day. She seemed to be a nice, sweet and innocent girl. The more I came to know her the more I wanted to be her friend. The more I heard from her the stronger I felt our bond grow. Dash had dreams. She wanted to travel the world. She wanted to quit her present job for a better one. She worked hard all day at the store so that she could go home early and prepare herself for her dream job. This year she had almost cleared her dream exam. But nepotism does exist. Next year would be her fifth and final attempt. She never let her dreams be a hinderance at work and performed all duties at the store with utmost sincerity. She had a heart of gold and never wanted to harm anyone but the store keeper. For the last few evenings she looked disturbed and complained of an inveterate headache. She looks drained everyday. But nowadays she is not just drained of energy, she is also drained of hope and everything nice. I am worried. She tells me everything and I just thought if you would be interested in the story of her supermarket.
It was a medium sized super-market located at a busy street in the outskirts of J city. Around five hundred to six hundred people frequented the market on normal days. The numbers soared to over eight hundred on festivals and other holidays. The locality belonged to the poor and middle class people and so did the market. Most of the people who visited the store were illiterate and had to be helped with the labels. The store had two owners, one a local hypocrite who wanted to please authorities by showing off his pseudo concern for the poor and the other a cunning, shrewd Rajasthani baniya who was extremely profit minded and would not stop at anything when there was a question about profits. The hypocrite was not interested in the plight of the store. He just wanted to secure a coveted position at Super-Market Regulatory Authority somewhere in the faraway mainland. The other partner was just as bad. He wanted profits at any cost. Sometimes at the cost of fleecing customers. He gave dubious instructions to his employees and chewed out anyone who got into trouble for following them. He also secretly lauded the crooked employees who managed to stoop as low as him. Cheating people and being a saint in front of those very same people were his superpowers. "I owe everything to the goodwill of my customers," He would repeat like a parrot.
Dash had never met the owners of the store. Their instructions were passed on to the store keeper in the form of a written handbill from time to time. The store had a total of eight employees. It was headed by the store keeper, Mr. Gendalal. A dark, ugly, balding, irritated young man. When I saw him he didn't look young. But Dash insisted by saying that he was unmarried and not fifty yet. I believe her. Dash was supposed to be second to him. Something like the assistant store keeper. But till date she has never been given her rightful authority as the assistant store keeper. It was because Mr. Gendalal felt something special for Miss Chameli Devi. Their relationship cannot be defined easily. Little things that one did for another made their relationship popular in the store. During lunch Mr Gendalal would empty all his favourite items into Miss Chameli's plate just because they were her favourite too. If the item was not a special favourite of Miss chameli then he would take them into his own plate. In times like these his personal preferences didn't matter. He openly complimented her for everything, looks, "nature", work etc. Now Miss Chameli Devi behaved a little differetly. Might be because of all the importance she got or maybe she was wired that way. I met her twice at the store. She roams about with an air of authority. When I didn't know the store owners I thought she must definitely be one amongst them. But Dash said "no". I asked again and got a"no" again. Miss Chameli Devi was gifted in a different sort of way. A medium sized, young, well groomed lady. She smiled whenever she met anyone. She smiled at me too the first day we met. Thankfully ever since my childhood I was taught not to give in to smiles from strangers quickly. Otherwise I would have ended up buying that expired milk carton. I know many who have. Dash doesn't do that to the store keepers dismay. She can't. She once tried selling a new product and got an answer like "I don't know the manufacturers of this product. How do I believe them?" She basically wasn't good with people. The store wasn't her place. Then there were other people around in the store. Mr Bhayankar Tapori, the overweight cashier at the store, and a staunch supporter of favoritism. By favoritism I mean he wanted to be the storekeeper's favourite. He never left any stone unturned, from complimenting Miss Chameli Devi to screaming at Dash in the crowded market, he did everything. Then there was Bimar Singh uncle who was forever sick. I still don't know what role he was supposed to play in the running of the market. But Bimar uncle was too sick to work. Oh! I forgot to mention about Akbaar chacha. He had all the information. If he thought something was missing, he would drive you nuts until you gave away the missing piece of information. Last but not the least were Chand bhai and Chupchap mausi. They were the cleaners of the store and good friends of Dash.
It was a dreary November morning when I heard the announcement. The hypocrite store owner had cooked up yet another nasty scheme. He had managed to convince the baniya too this time. "More people will come to our store this way. It will be good advertisement for our store." must have been what he had said. A scheme which offered new items in return of old items. Any item. Whether bought from this store or someplace else would just be exchanged for a new one. "Brothers and sisters, with the help of this scheme I would like to encourage all you people to come and buy from our store instead of going to the middle man or the black market. I wish to convey this message to the whole J city that this market is for everyone. We do not differentiate people on any basis." was what he said to win over the council. All store employees were perplexed when they received a handbill describing the scheme. They were confused. "Simply give away new items?"they couldn't believe.
The scheme was supposed to begin on Sunday. As expected, almost the whole city had gathered at the store for their share of new loot. Tapori uncle who was extremely slack at work couldn't digest the fact that he would actually have to work instead of just flattering people. But he continued what he did best and avoided whatever he was weak at. Akbaar chacha worked without closing his mouth for a second. He had to keep a track of the brands and prices of the old items being deposited and issue new ones. He screamed, he shouted at everyone including the storekeeper. Cash was supposed to be received by Tapori uncle but he took that on himself as well. No not without reason. His intention was to leave early and stalk some girl in his village. Chupchap mausi took charge of handling the crowd at the store. Chand bhai ran all the miscellaneous errands.
All this turbulence while Dash was away at Timbuktu. It was her first holiday in two and a half years and she was blissfully unaware. Naturally someone had to take over her place then. It had to be none other than Chameli Devi. Poor girl. Alone in such adversity you might think. But as I had said earlier Chameli Devi was gifted. She could handle any situation very cleverly and this was no exception. It was the second day after the launch of this scheme. A guy was spotted approaching by Chameli Devi. She felt irritation rising up in her head. Her tensions began.
"How will I dodge him?"she thought.
It took her exactly one second to think of a genius dodge. She opened a drawer and buried her head inside. It did not prove a great hit as it didn't deter the guy from approaching Chameli Devi. She could hear his footsteps. By now sweat started pouring out from her forehead.
"Now what?"
She hurriedly pulled out the second drawer while the first was still open. She searched for as long as she heard footsteps. Tension built up inside her. Finally the sound of the footsteps stopped. The dude was right in front of Chameli Devi with a brand new pack of Cornflakes in hand. Chameli Devi closed her eyes for a second. She felt her mind go numb with "now what?" anxiety. She paused, repeated the words "calm down dear, you need to think" inside her head and pretended to keep searching. In the meanwhile the cornflakes guy stared with all attention that he could muster on our searching girl. She could by now almost feel the attention he bestowed on her. Chameli Devi threw a sharp and worried "I swear I had put the Kohinoor diamond right here" glance at the dude. The cool dude felt a mixture of sympathy and guilt and waited.
"I can pretend to search for sometime but not very long. Sometime now or a little later they will ask me what they want. There must be a way out,"was something she might have thought.
In the meanwhile another guy with a bag full of vegetables saw him waiting and started waiting himself. Another girl threw a glance at the two waiting dudes and immediately joined the bandwagon. More people joined them all while Chameli Devi searched for her Kohinoor in three simultaneously open drawers. It became a party for them. A gathering of so many people at a single point in the store. Many got friendly and start chatting. Chameli Devi was still raking her brains. This time there would have to be a lasting solution to her problem. Plans were building up inside her head like a castle. First she started with a vague misty form, then developed it to a solid structure. She had even imagined the type and size of rocks that were used for the construction. She was almost there adorning her castle with fountains, grass and gargoyle while some introvert amongst them started coughing in a bid to catch Chameli Devi's attention. The irritation had by now grown to be more intense and Chameli Devi was almost completed with the layering of her grass within the castle and the shape of the gargoyle. "Beautiful" she thought and stopped pretending to search, brought out the phone from her pocket, made (what seemed to be) a very important call and left the crowded party for some isolated corner. The jabbering at the party grew louder. On any normal day this irritated party would go join a "steadily getting our job done" party surrounding Dash (much to her irritation). The two parties together would make more noise and scream more often. Dash often told me that her instinct then was to throw the computer, her chair and the table at those jabbering, screaming and complaining people. But that would cost her her job. So she remained quiet and tried to answer their queries in the shortest way possible. But today there was no Dash. The jabbering party moved over from jabbering to complaining. Then from complaining to shouting. Then they shouted loud enough for the storekeeper to hear. Mr Gendalal came out rushing. He heard then called for Chameli Devi. Chameli devi returned with her worked out, stressed and "where did the Kohinoor go" expression.
"Where were you?" Gendalal asks like a concerned parent.
"I just don't understand. How much am I supposed to do? I have to attend to them also, eat my meals also, make my own phone calls. I don't even have time to stand up! You understand right?"
Without any further question Gendalal attended to each and every member of the party himself and gave "some much needed" relief to Chameli Devi.
Later that day I remembered that I forgot my purse. I tried to recollect where I had kept it last. I played the whole day inside my head. I was there watching Chameli Devi, then I went to the Sale Section and made a call, then I tried more tops and came out. After that I did not see my phone. So it must be lying somewhere there, I concluded. It was late. I did not expect to find the store open but thought there could be no harm checking. To my surprise the front gate was still open. The lights were out. Only the storekeeper's room emitted a fluorescent yellow. I turned on my mobile torch and started searching for my purse. I targeted the bucket of tried clothes first. I might have dumped the dress as well as phone together. I searched and found a United Colors of Benetton top that I had tried earlier that day. I unwrapped it and found my phone inside. Imagine my happiness! I was so happy. I wanted to rush out and declare to the world that I found my phone. But I controlled myself and started walking towards the entrance.
I had just reached the electronics section when I heard an angry female voice coming from the storekeeper's room. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to sneak and listen. The voice belonged to none other than Chameli Devi.
"It was so irresponsible of Dash to not be here at this time. Not knowing that such a scheme would be launched should not be an excuse"
"True" said the storekeeper's voice. His voice seemed as if he was repeating words he was supposed to utter in a mesmerized state.
"There is so much burden on us now! Who will do all this?"
"You are right"
"Sir, how can I cope up with all this? So much pressure! I can't take this anymore." she sounded more seductive than worried to me this time.
"Don't worry. I will be there with you."
"Thank you so much, Sir. We will teach that Dash a lesson for taking this leave."
I don't know if they had heard me or they were just moving around I the room. But I ran to the safety of the dim lit streets in fear of being caught. Dash joined in another two days. She noticed a few changes but didn't learn anything exceptional. Chameli Devi now stopped searching drawers and sat with the storekeeper and gossiped all day. Dash attended all the customers- angry, kind, good, cunning etc. Her party grew bigger day by day. She came to meet me always more tired than the previous day. Finally we couldn't even continue meeting. I must admit that Chameli Devi built a beautiful castle that day.
All this turbulence while Dash was away at Timbuktu. It was her first holiday in two and a half years and she was blissfully unaware. Naturally someone had to take over her place then. It had to be none other than Chameli Devi. Poor girl. Alone in such adversity you might think. But as I had said earlier Chameli Devi was gifted. She could handle any situation very cleverly and this was no exception. It was the second day after the launch of this scheme. A guy was spotted approaching by Chameli Devi. She felt irritation rising up in her head. Her tensions began.
"How will I dodge him?"she thought.
It took her exactly one second to think of a genius dodge. She opened a drawer and buried her head inside. It did not prove a great hit as it didn't deter the guy from approaching Chameli Devi. She could hear his footsteps. By now sweat started pouring out from her forehead.
"Now what?"
She hurriedly pulled out the second drawer while the first was still open. She searched for as long as she heard footsteps. Tension built up inside her. Finally the sound of the footsteps stopped. The dude was right in front of Chameli Devi with a brand new pack of Cornflakes in hand. Chameli Devi closed her eyes for a second. She felt her mind go numb with "now what?" anxiety. She paused, repeated the words "calm down dear, you need to think" inside her head and pretended to keep searching. In the meanwhile the cornflakes guy stared with all attention that he could muster on our searching girl. She could by now almost feel the attention he bestowed on her. Chameli Devi threw a sharp and worried "I swear I had put the Kohinoor diamond right here" glance at the dude. The cool dude felt a mixture of sympathy and guilt and waited.
"I can pretend to search for sometime but not very long. Sometime now or a little later they will ask me what they want. There must be a way out,"was something she might have thought.
In the meanwhile another guy with a bag full of vegetables saw him waiting and started waiting himself. Another girl threw a glance at the two waiting dudes and immediately joined the bandwagon. More people joined them all while Chameli Devi searched for her Kohinoor in three simultaneously open drawers. It became a party for them. A gathering of so many people at a single point in the store. Many got friendly and start chatting. Chameli Devi was still raking her brains. This time there would have to be a lasting solution to her problem. Plans were building up inside her head like a castle. First she started with a vague misty form, then developed it to a solid structure. She had even imagined the type and size of rocks that were used for the construction. She was almost there adorning her castle with fountains, grass and gargoyle while some introvert amongst them started coughing in a bid to catch Chameli Devi's attention. The irritation had by now grown to be more intense and Chameli Devi was almost completed with the layering of her grass within the castle and the shape of the gargoyle. "Beautiful" she thought and stopped pretending to search, brought out the phone from her pocket, made (what seemed to be) a very important call and left the crowded party for some isolated corner. The jabbering at the party grew louder. On any normal day this irritated party would go join a "steadily getting our job done" party surrounding Dash (much to her irritation). The two parties together would make more noise and scream more often. Dash often told me that her instinct then was to throw the computer, her chair and the table at those jabbering, screaming and complaining people. But that would cost her her job. So she remained quiet and tried to answer their queries in the shortest way possible. But today there was no Dash. The jabbering party moved over from jabbering to complaining. Then from complaining to shouting. Then they shouted loud enough for the storekeeper to hear. Mr Gendalal came out rushing. He heard then called for Chameli Devi. Chameli devi returned with her worked out, stressed and "where did the Kohinoor go" expression.
"Where were you?" Gendalal asks like a concerned parent.
"I just don't understand. How much am I supposed to do? I have to attend to them also, eat my meals also, make my own phone calls. I don't even have time to stand up! You understand right?"
Without any further question Gendalal attended to each and every member of the party himself and gave "some much needed" relief to Chameli Devi.
Later that day I remembered that I forgot my purse. I tried to recollect where I had kept it last. I played the whole day inside my head. I was there watching Chameli Devi, then I went to the Sale Section and made a call, then I tried more tops and came out. After that I did not see my phone. So it must be lying somewhere there, I concluded. It was late. I did not expect to find the store open but thought there could be no harm checking. To my surprise the front gate was still open. The lights were out. Only the storekeeper's room emitted a fluorescent yellow. I turned on my mobile torch and started searching for my purse. I targeted the bucket of tried clothes first. I might have dumped the dress as well as phone together. I searched and found a United Colors of Benetton top that I had tried earlier that day. I unwrapped it and found my phone inside. Imagine my happiness! I was so happy. I wanted to rush out and declare to the world that I found my phone. But I controlled myself and started walking towards the entrance.
I had just reached the electronics section when I heard an angry female voice coming from the storekeeper's room. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to sneak and listen. The voice belonged to none other than Chameli Devi.
"It was so irresponsible of Dash to not be here at this time. Not knowing that such a scheme would be launched should not be an excuse"
"True" said the storekeeper's voice. His voice seemed as if he was repeating words he was supposed to utter in a mesmerized state.
"There is so much burden on us now! Who will do all this?"
"You are right"
"Sir, how can I cope up with all this? So much pressure! I can't take this anymore." she sounded more seductive than worried to me this time.
"Don't worry. I will be there with you."
"Thank you so much, Sir. We will teach that Dash a lesson for taking this leave."
I don't know if they had heard me or they were just moving around I the room. But I ran to the safety of the dim lit streets in fear of being caught. Dash joined in another two days. She noticed a few changes but didn't learn anything exceptional. Chameli Devi now stopped searching drawers and sat with the storekeeper and gossiped all day. Dash attended all the customers- angry, kind, good, cunning etc. Her party grew bigger day by day. She came to meet me always more tired than the previous day. Finally we couldn't even continue meeting. I must admit that Chameli Devi built a beautiful castle that day.
