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05:11 AM
Bikram Vohra
JournalismPakistan.com
June 10, 2013
So we are at this food court in a Mall and across us is this family of five from the subcontinent, I imagine, and they are cramming their faces with food and sitting with them is their housemaid or nanny or whatever and she is looking at them gorging and they have ordered nothing for her.
Like this absurdity goes on for half an hour and it is not as if the children are babies, they are pre-teen and fat and sleek and they don’t even give this lady a cold drink.
What is it with us, any of us that we can think ourselves so lofty as to be so hurtful and arrogant that we ignore another human being whose only fault is she has less money than you...and picks up your muck after you.
It is not just us, it is all the other tables who are looking away in embarrassment because it is so obvious that she is being treated as an inferior. I can’t use the ‘s’ word. I stopped my kids from using it when they were kids and I know they will ensure their kids never use it. We even disallow guests from using it.
Get over your autocratic days, guys, a nanny, a cook, a cleaner, a driver, they are support staff and not any different from the relationship you have with your boss. He gives you orders, you take them.
Same difference.
You know my rage? When people change their tone of voice speaking to the domestic help, like you were barking at a dog.
And there at the food court, this smug lot weren’t even awkward about their behavior.
(The writer is a Senior Editorial Advisor of Khaleej Times and the paper’s former Editor. He has also been the Editor of Gulf News, Gulf Today, Emirates Today and Bahrain Tribune)
If my call is so important to them, why don’t they answer it for 22 minutes?
How come when I want to, but something specific online is the only item out of stock.
When I get into a queue or lane going fast, the moment I get in, it becomes the slowest and refuses to budge.
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