Sunday, April 18, 2010

Kwality Khaiyen, Sada Muskuraiyen



To put things into perspective, I am not associated with Kwality Walls in any way, nor am I getting free ice creams to write this and as you go through this piece you will realize that it has nothing to do with Kwality Walls.

Our first weekend at Gurgaon (marketing interns know what a weekend is :P) and we (5 of us) decided to freak out in Delhi. Not knowing much about the place, we depended on local help and navigation maps. For people who aren’t aware of it, try that out, it’s freaking awesome and free. So we landed up at Connaught Place and went to some bazaar. I had heard a lot about the crowd in Delhi and got my first experience at this bazaar. Every blink and you will end up seeing someone. Does that beat Mumbai? Time will tell.

Later, we went to Palika Bazaar – an underground bazaar where you can find clothes and electronic accessories. As usual with such places one should know the heads and tails of bargaining. The market was suffocating and my fellow buddies will agree to that. After loads of window shopping and some actual shopping as well we ended up having ice cream at a Kwality Walls vendor near Gate 1 of Palika Bazaar.

Gupta ji (the vendor) had this peculiar chant “Kwality khaiyen, sada muskuraiyen” (eat Kwality Walls ice cream and smile forever) to attract consumers. We found this interesting and stuck a conversation with Gupta ji. Gupta ji is from Bihar and has been selling ice creams since 1988. Unfortunately my friend’s wallet fell down and all his belongings went haywire in the ground. So as we were gathering his stuff, Gupta ji told us “agar aap kuch bhul bhi gaye toh kall aa jana” (even if you forget anything, you can come tomorrow and collect it). Then Gupta ji went about telling us how important honesty is in life and will lead to rewards. Not that we haven’t heard about this before, but what he said was very interesting. In today’s world where majority want to suck up every single penny from others, we find a person who is so humble and honest. Am I so convinced about my judgement on Gupta ji? I think I am. He has a daughter who is a teacher in some school and both his son work to earn their living making their father proud.

At times, you end up meeting people who leave a long lasting impression on you. One starts wondering, what if, if everyone is like them and the world would be a much better place. Gupta ji is someone who belongs to this special category of people.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

hi prashant,
let me share sth too-I've experienced these common people are so shrewd at times where as the upper sect behaves frigid.


nice post..