I am getting used to a new grocery store in town, which is way bigger than the one that I used to frequent. No more interactions with the former body-builder and others. The small talk that happened a lot at the old grocery store is, well, history.
The last time that this happened was when my parents moved to a new home from one part of Chennai to another. The grocery store people was one of the many to whom my parents bid goodbye after 25 years of interactions that were more than mere small talk--the store owner even attended my sister's wedding!
Life happens and we literally move on to new places.
A couple of weeks ago, I was at the coffee bins, mixing the roasts to bring about my own preferred taste. I don't like the charcoal like dark roasts. Nor the pale light roast. But, the dark and the light bring their own chemistry to the brew. Which is why I typically mix a heavy proportion of the espresso roast with a little bit of light and dark.
I emptied the bag's content into the grinder. I was about to hit the power button when I felt a guy rushing towards me. He was one of the employees.
"Do you know how to use this machine?"
Was this guy serious? Doesn't he know that coffee is practically a religion to me? In all my decades of grinding coffee at the grocery stores, not once has anybody interfered with my purchase.
"Yes, thank you" I replied.
My immediate thought was, of course, related to my skin color and my appearance. Did that white guy think that I was fresh off the boat from a shithole and that I wouldn't know how to use a coffee grinder?
I finished grinding and moved on.
Today, he took his attitude to a whole new level.
He was filling the coffee bins. I approached the machine that was near him in order to grind today's mix.
"The next time, use one of the machines away from me when you see me working," he said.
WTF!
The guy is plainly rude, or a racist, or both.
Assholes are everywhere. Life will be a lot more enjoyable without them.
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