Only in India will you find someone to come and change your Tata Sky box at 9:30 pm on Saturday evening. I remember waiting for the cable guy within the extremely precise "anytime between 8 am to 4 pm" time frame in all cities I have lived in before moving back home.
When we came back to India, things were super slow. This was 7 years ago...of course, some things have changed and most have not! We would feel apologetic to ask the maid to do the job we have paid her (generously) for....feel indebted to the delivery guy for bringing us that priceless half litre of milk for our late night chai (we would request it from the campus grocery store at 9:30 pm....they close at 10:00 pm)....the list goes on.
This gratitude for not having to move our butts too far was regardless of the level of service we received. For the most part (if you discount the '10 minutes sir, nimme mane hathraney ithini, bartha ithini' or 'I am staring at your house from my perch 10 minutes away, I am jumping as we speak...'!), we have got really amazing service. With a smile and at all times of the day and parts of the night!
Our surprise has been at how much it matters to people that they be treated nicely. Sure, most people like that. But the dignity of people I have encountered in the service sector has been such that they happily replace monetary rewards for courtesy. Small things like apologizing for keeping the taxi waiting for that extra 15 minutes, asking about their kids, remembering names and faces of people who you have seen before (like the local cab drivers), sharing parts of your life/general opinion (my mom told the cab driver on the way back from the hospital that Laiku was born and reduced him to tears....he actually said that he was happy to be thought worthy of this sharing!) with people means a lot to them.
The sad part is that it seems that enough people don't value the service and start off on a cynical and confrontational attitude. Even sadder is the plight of the service person...being yelled at is an occupational hazard in India for them. So it is not that we are doing anything amazing (we don't deserve any credit for treating people humanely!) but that it is unexpected to be treated right!
All in all, our tata sky box that died completely within the guarantee period (yes, that does happen sometimes!) was replaced for no charge by 9:35 pm on Saturday night. Roof climbing for dish tinkering, all inclusive. Rocks, no?!
G'night.
