DIY

Sitting alone at McDonald’s I was satisfying my craving for junk food and sipping my iced tea. My eyes were glued to a book I was supposed to be reading for an office assignment (‘Profit at the Bottom of the Pyramid’, no offence to CK Prahlad, but don’t even try to read it unless you aren’t forced to!). The girl sitting on the adjacent bar stool took a last sip of her coffee, carefully dabbed her lips with a tissue, picked up her expensive though ridiculous looking tote and walked off. As a knee – jerk reaction called behind her, “Hey, you forgot to pick up your tray!” For my uninvited comment she gave me a dirty look, a shrug of her shoulder and stalked off.

NOTE: For those who find it difficult to comprehend the purpose of my reflex action, allow me to explain. McDonald’s is a self – serve fast food joint. According to their protocol, you place the order at the counter, pick up your tray and when you are done, you trash the leftovers in the bin and stack up your tray your self. 'Your self' being the important words here.

Not a very complex exercise, right? Wrong. We all like the self serve restaurants but we seem to have a problem with their ‘do – it – yourself’ policy.  And everyone seems to know that. Why else did the worker at the joint not make a face picking up that woman’s tray of leftovers and dunking it in the bin? Why else do most self – serve joints recruit people for picking up used trays of food?

Granted, India is country which gave us history books full of royalty, but isn’t it a bit snobbish to think that we might still have a bit of blue blood in us? At another instance I was enjoying a Sunday brunch at a friend’s place. As lunch was served, my friend said one word at least a dozen times. No it wasn’t praise for the food. It was ‘Sheila’. And this time it wasn’t ‘Sheila ki Jawani’ that I was amazed at, but her agility and patience. Sheila is his maid. (Pardon me for that poor attempt at joking but I just couldn’t miss the opportunity: P)

Do we consider ourselves so high up in the society that it feels derogatory to pick up our used utensils? When I asked my friend, he confessed that it isn’t being snobbish or used to the royal treatment, it is just being lazy. Perhaps India is the only country where small time entrepreneurs thrive by making working and non working models and charts and science projects for students. I am also rather sure that not many countries can boast of a system where washing clothes, cutting vegetables, cleaning cars, even filling all sorts of forms are means of earning a livelihood. Of course this snobbish behavior or laziness contributes to the Indian economy and employment scene. But if you were expecting a political blog, you have the wrong link.

Whatever may be the excuse behind not grasping the meaning of ‘do – it – yourself’, this behavior is unacceptable and demeaning to those who finish those menial jobs for you. But if the message still fails to sink in, an advice: next time avoid self service joints. That will save you the lecture and dirty looks from at least a couple of people.

Cold regards

A pissed me!