Yesterday I went to a small shop beside our campus, for breakfast. Well, to speak the truth that was my "brunch"! Brunch-shoppies in this part of the world are not that hi-fi. They are mostly single hall place with rickety benches to sit upon and a perenial mild stink meandering all around. But the cook in this place would be working just at the entrance of the shop. You pass by the road, you can see all the meticulous effort he was putting into whatever he was trying to make. And in the morning he will make "parathas" or "pratas" (as the Singaporeans call it). To roll one paratha he will take at least 5 minutes. He will fold it in numerous folds, so that finally it will look like some idol of Ganesh. Then he will spread it and roll it properly into a multi-layered round shape. His devotion to his work would draw me near this shop and once a while i will come to this place for a brunch.
Well... coming to the main story, this yesterday I was having my brunch when a lad from the next door shop came. And he started his breakfast. Those from India pretty well know this phenomena. A neighbourhood brunch-shop is like your next home where you can popin anytime. But many times you tend to forget to pay him. Hence, i expected our guy form next-door shop to have a decent breakfast and go without paying. To my first surprise, he took to his heart's fill. And then to my second surprise he out-right paid Rs35!
Rs35 for breakfast for a lad whose income may not be more than Rs1000 per month! Strange??!! This is the spirit I found here. Peopl believe in spending...in living life today... in having all the comfort that can be had. No tension for future no remourse for the good old days. Something we all need to learn. Live life each day!
