Small Things…Big Learnings

“It’s called slices and not pieces”, the customer care executive of Pizza Hut. I felt a bit ashamed that for such a regular thing, I had to hear it from her. But thankfully it’s a telephonic call and to cover that up, I hesitantly said thank you for the information and placed the order.

Actually the customer care executive from pizza hut told me that thing in Hindi ‘ ussey slices bolte hai, pieces nahi” but anyway.

This happened some 7-8 years back, when I was in Delhi and first time in my life I was ordering pizza. Generally while ordering pizzas, I don’t order on my own and ask the options to the executive on the call. This to avoid another embarrassment because of the difficult pizza type names or ingredient names like jalapeno [still confused how to pronounce and even I knew now, feel something different pronouncing it], etc.

Point of putting it here is, we don’t know who and what situations teach us something which we don’t know about.

Before marriage, whenever at home, my mother used to send me for Bazar – vegetable market. New to this as well, I bought tomatoes first as those were at the start of the bazar, then went on to buy onions and potatoes. That lady, an old one, in kind words in Marathi told me, “babu, tomato, paale bhajya shevati kharedi karayachya, kharab hot nahit” [listen kid, tomato, leafy vegetables, should be bought at the last to avoid any waste].

During college, to save money on commute, we took a bus pass for commuting to college and back. As per pass rule, its allowed only once in day, but sometimes due to extra lecture we had to go twice. But we guys, in order to save money, used to just tell the conductor “Pass” and avoid showing it. Many a times they used to neglect but few used to check diligently.

One such day, conductor demanded the pass for checking, but I already utilized it for that day, post looking at my face he understood the situation and told me, if you have to lie, lie it in bold way so that the person won’t doubt you. He left me that day.

Somehow it’s still difficult for me to lie and seem bold but shall try when situation really demands that.

Everyone must be having such small instances with big teachings. I always remember my interaction with that pizza hut lady while ordering the pizza, that old lady who told me how to prioritize while buying vegetables whenever I see a bag full of vegetables and obviously the bus conductor when I see students in the bus.

Would like to know your such encounters…