![]() Don’t Keep The Change!A Story by Chinmay Chakravarty![]() just laugh!![]() We felt tired and
hungry that evening after going through a veritable shopping spree in an
upmarket area of the big city. Of course, we did not shop in the cool and
expansive showrooms. We moved on, standing all the time, from vendor to vendor sprawled
as usual along the pavement doing brisk business. Add to that our tedious
journey by a city bus before that. Now, another bus journey where a seat was
never guaranteed back home staring at us, we definitely would not have liked to
undertake it, starving mad. It was not in our
planning to have tea and snacks as most of the restaurants where you could sit
and eat in comfort were very expensive. However, in earnest consultation with
my wife, we finally decided to respect the signals blipping constantly in the
bellies. We entered one airconditioned
and posh restaurant and took a side table along the glass paneled wall, rewarding
us with a nice view outside. The waiters were in uniform. One elderly waiter came
up to us smiling. We checked the menu and discovered the least costly snack
along with the cheapest variety of tea. The bill would not amount to much. We leaned
back in the velvety chairs. We ordered. We were very happy to
find that our pangs of hunger were quite satisfactorily quieted along with the add-on
of the comfortable environs that relieved us of the tiredness, thus revitalizing
us for the journey back. The elderly waiter
placed the bill while we were still sipping the steaming cups of tea with elaborate
leisure. I checked the bill and finding it not to be on the higher side decided
to not use the credit cards. I paid in cash. The waiter quickly came
back with the change. To my surprise all the change were in coins of various
denominations, filling almost whole of the tray. Like any other innocent being
of my species I did not smell a rat. I just looked up at him,
nodded smiling back at him in a way to convey the message that ‘Let me finish
and then I’ll settle it’, and then concentrated on our tea and a casual chat. The
elderly waiter smiled broadly now, and he did something that was one of the
most unexpected things of my entire life. Like the expert maid who
scrubs your home floors in a flash the elderly waiter, in a swift motion, swished
away the pile of the coins from the tray with his right palm to his gratefully
expanded left palm. Then he moved away quickly. I did not want to look
embarrassed or angry. Coming into that restaurant meant we were customers of a higher
plane of social status. I tried very hard, however, to keep the smile linger on
my face, and turned my attention to the last sip of the tea. I did not even tell
anything to my unsuspecting wife who was enjoying the tea and the ambience
blissfully. Not telling my wife had
a valid reason too. She had always been very vocal and outspoken in regard to
any kind of injustice. And this particular unjust happening when the supposed
tip amounted to almost 40% of the total bill would have rattled her rendering
her vocal cords go out-of-control which
would have been quite inappropriate in that place and in its enriching ambience.
Not that I never give
tips or that I’m miserly in that kind of normal practices. But this ‘tip
robbery’ does make one have a brainstorming rethink on the issue and perhaps
tend to reverse the generous uttering of ‘keep the change’ depending on the situation
that happens to prevail. © 2022 Chinmay ChakravartyAuthor's Note
|
Stats
56 Views
Added on January 19, 2022 Last Updated on January 19, 2022 Tags: restaurants, waiters, tips, shopping, vendors Author![]() Chinmay ChakravartyMumbai, Western , IndiaAboutHailing from a writers’ family in Assam, Chinmay Chakravarty has been writing since his school days. A post-graduate from the Delhi School of Economics, he started his career as a freelance jour.. more..Writing
|