An Awkward Moment

Today morning while I visited the market I had lots of things to buy, from kirana materials to veg marketing. When I just reached the market suddenly the strip of my sandal torn, I had no problem to complete the marketing in bare footed but few years back I performed this activity and after returning back get scolded by Mom, So this time to avoid being scolded I decided to go for repairing and luckily found a cobbler shop nearby, when I reached there were no other customer, the shop owner is a middle aged person, he was sitting in the floor with the necessary instruments, seeing the owner I was unable to decide what to do because it was really a very awkward feeling that a person who is elder than me will repair my sandals and I have to instruct(tell) him what to do…but I was already inn and he asked me to give him my sandals, opening my right feet sandals and taking that in hand I handed over it to him, when he was repairing  I was standing in front of him…it was really very awkward moment for me…a middle aged person is repairing my sandal holding it in his hands, the feeling that…in my instruction an elder person is serving for me and repairing my sandal !!!!!! How can I give command to an elder person? How can I instruct like a master and he is my servant!!!! …nothing happened like these but his service for me made me feel so. Everyday lots of numbers of people visit this shop…from children to aged persons and this cobbler takes everyone’s shoes and sandals, those dirty shoes and sandals and holding those in his hand he repairs….how he feels?....all these I was thinking when he was busy in his work.

I was not in the stage to speak a single word from the time I had entered the shop, seeing the age difference between us, seeing the position…I was standing and he was sitting in front of me and extended his hand towards me for my sandal…I will never forget this moment.

Struggle for existence…that’s all I can speak out and assure myself, I was trying to make myself feel that if we don’t visit his shop then how will he arrange his daily meal for himself and for his family members?

Think yourself in his position and you will realize how much tough it is to perform such job…we all want a good position, a social status and high designation…it’s a good thing to have big dreams, may be this cobbler also dreamt something big…but ultimately the destiny played his game…logically…who dreams to be a cobbler? 

We all have to visit these type of people to get their services, they have to do work under our instructions, we need them and they need us but in between all these what can we do is…to make them feel good, behave gently, helping them and specially by calling them “Aap” not “Tum” or “Tu”…I think it’s not a very tough one to perform.