Sitting on the pavement with a confident aura and observing the passersby – sometimes shouting like a marketing genre, Raj uncle is an age old phenomena for me. I have known him for more than two decades as far as I believe. He used to be quite young and versatile in his personality, now that I could find him in a sea of people in the flea market, I could sanely observe that age has definitely took over him.
I generally went to say a sober “Hi”
to the him and was never short of words when the conversation began. He at once
recognized me as an old customer, though he did not expect me to buy any items
he had displayed in front of him. I knew for better that he must have gone
through tough times which had befallen on such assiduous souls who, in spite of
all the dichotomy of life stood still and faced the situation with aplomb.
Asking him about his ‘Business’ condition, he was quick to react, whilst he
raised his hands above - “Everything is owed to HIM, we are nothing son!”.
This one sentence actually said
it all for the cerebral mind. It encapsulates our exposed reality and our vulnerabilities
of life. We believe on certain outcomes of our daily activities ignorant of the
fact what actually is stored for us or for what we are pronounced destined!
Raj Uncle has been in the business of selling hand purses and handkerchiefs since I have known him. As far as I remember, he had two daughters – the same was asked by chatterbox in me. Suddenly, he started to smile; an emotion I have not seen in many now a days, and responded “Both of them are happily married, and well settled in life.” I am happy for them and they take of me and my wife by calling us every now and then and dropping in occasionally, what else a father wants in this life.”
Another streak of wisdom Raj uncle spelled midst of showing some ladies purses to some customers who suddenly happen to arrive from nowhere; though a good sign for his business. The deal didn’t go through, but Raj uncle’s zeal to sell just does not die – he shouted clamorously to attract all and sundry, to which there was meagre response. In between, he started to enquire about my well-being, to which I responded in affirmative. I just wanted to talk to him more and more as I could judge a sense of instinctive connect with him – may be due to the fact that I had met him after almost half a year, though I was also very conscious of the fact that he was going through his prime business hours and could not afford to be as talkative as I am, also bearing in mind that he was all alone to manage his paraphernalia.
Convincing customers nowadays is
a tricky spell in business, I observed him to be quite a rainmaker in his art
of selling. Finally, I fell for his articulative stance and thought of buying
purse for my mom – needless to say, he was more than happy to see me as a
customer again, the deal was struck quickly with little haggling – for me
buying his sell was just a symbolic gesture and a way of overcoming my guilt of
wasting time of his whilst he was working!
A final goodbye and note of
thanks exchanged between us and my thoughtful mind started to reminisce our past
when he never used to sit on the pavement and sell his goods but to stand in front
of the road and gesticulate and shout every now and then to attract customers –
may be decades of workmanship has made him acknowledge the art of instinctive
selling and also as I observed now , Raj uncle’s age has taken over it with
passage of time.
Giving the purse to my mom – the final
cult came, “Did you bring it from Raj sahib?” – that is the honor the man holds
in our house and why not he deserves all the praise one can gift for his
fighting spirit and living for a purpose with a thankful stance for All!!!
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