Realized yesterday, I speak to my pav wala, istri wala,paper wala,kachre wala, watchman almost everyday and yet I never ever asked them their names.
Today I did, and they were so happy I did.
I am happy too. Now I don’t need to address them by their professions; just as I would not like anyone addressing me by mine.
Every culture has such a huge celebration around names, irrespective of one being rich or poor.
So why let those beautiful names get buried under heaps of paper, garbage, laundry and bread?
Today when Saidoor flashed a 1000 watt smile as he greeted me in the morning, I knew I had forged a lifelong bond with him.
Insia Dariwala is a graduate from F.I.T New York (Advertising and Mass communications), loves to tell stories and is a filmmaker. ‘The Candy Man’ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSr0ne-iizs) her hard hitting debut film on child abuse won her two ‘Best Director’ awards in India (2009, 2010) and also got nominated at Barcelona International Film Festival and the New York Short film Festival in 2010.
Hi Insia,
This was one of my first lessons of childhood. My parents made an effort to find out names of people and address them as such. I guess I imbibed the habit too. Makes such a major difference to the interaction.
Lovely reading this.
Yes it does Rachna, Glad you enjoyed it 🙂