The shopping complex in which I have my shop is owned by a seventy
year old man. He is old in age and quick to get angry. Due to his nature some
shopkeepers are more resentful toward him than they are toward Modi-ji for
implementing GST.
This is the conversation I had with, Mr.Complex-owner, owner
of the shopping complex in which I have my shop yesterday.
After lunch I like to sleep. If I was working in an office
then I would have called my slumber as power nap. But since I am a small
shopkeeper in a small town... my post lunch sleep is called sleep.
However, owning a shop has its own perks. I have an inflatable pillow and as mattress I use old newspapers. In case if I have to ever spend a night in jail then at least I won’t have much trouble in sleeping.
I own a hosiery shop.
This makes me an underwear salesman. And since due to recession it seems a huge
part of population have decided to go commando I like to sleep after lunch
behind one of the sales counters.
Yesterday I was woken with a man shouting in my shop. The
man was asking where is the owner of this shop. At first I thought this was an
irate customer who wanted to tell me about the holes in his underwear. Then I
heard the man shout the same question and realized it was Mr. Complex-owner who
was prowling for this daily dose of skirmish.
I beckoned one of the employees to stay silent. One of my
other employee however revealed to Mr. Complex-owner that I was hiding behind
sales counter. Mr. Complex-owner peeked and found me in supine position
watching youtube.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Just nothing. Just trying to take a nap,” I replied.
“Why are all the lights of your shop shut off?” Mr
Complex-owner asked.
“Because there are no customers in the shop,” I replied.
Mr. Complex-owner looked at me how Amitabh Bachchan must
look at people who are eliminated in the first round of KBC.
“So what there are no customers? Switch on lights so
customers can find your shop,” Mr. Complex-owner thundered.
What’s the point in burning electricity during day time? I
wanted to argue. But I didn’t. That’s because I am very bad at arguing. I am so
bad at arguing that people with holes in their underwear berate me for selling them
bad underwear and I can’t even tell them the fault could be of the soap used
for washing clothes.
Hence, to maintain to my sanity I decided to avoid the city
champion of arguing and switched on couple of light bulbs.
