Minimalistic Living - A Sales boy's Story

 

My name is Chintu and I work in a supermarket as a billing boy. I am an only son and many days I had thanked the stars for not giving me a sibling . My  father likes to do 2 things in life.  Take money from me and get wasted . My mother is no exception. She used to be a tad bit better than my father but she got so tired trying to maintain our family , she started taking in to coping mechanisms like low budget ganja and flavored tobacco scrapes. She works as a house maid in 5 houses from morning after preparing something to eat in the house for lunch. I don't think I have had breakfast in years.  Luckily the neighborhood local shop owners know about our family and everyday I get one free coffee and one banana from two shops as my morning meal.  I somehow managed to study till 10th , thanks to my relatives monetary help and some friends who lent money for my 10th exam, apart from the school management reducing fees for me as an exception. I got 77% in my tenth board.

I liked a girl by name Kanaka in my school, we used to hang out after school as I disliked going back to my home immediately from school. We developed some childish attraction and have shared some kisses from time to time. Once I got more excited and she became nervous and didn't talk to me for days. Those were the most depressing days for me as I had no cell phone, no money for cable tv and my male friends are not much of a source of warmth. It's just fun , cussing and playing with the boys. I actually feel like a normal person when I am with her.  One day she herself came up to me boldly and told me that we should not let our emotions get the better out of us  , given that both of us were from poor families and if she ends up getting pregnant both their lives will become living hell. I agreed with her, apologized sincerely and  promised to not come near her unless she permitted.  Looking at my sincerity she pulled me closer and we had our longest kiss in months.  We dispersed after catching up with what was going on in our lives . She happened to tell me that she was planning to join a local supermarket as a sales girl as if she didn't do anything and sat at home, some elders in the family will take her up for family breeding to one of the relatives sons. I asked her what were the criteria involved for the selection and she said basic 10th grade pass with 70% score and decent looking. Both of us may not be the most gorgeous looking couple but we were decently good looking compared to our peers and we made a pact to study hard and take a job there.

Tenth board exams were done, results came out and as soon as we got to know our scores, we rushed to the supermarket to see if the vacancies were still there.. Luckily, due to the minimal salary,  menial benefits and maximum physical work,  people kept leaving the job and we both had a shot at the  job. We had a quick screening , we submitted our basic documents and promised to submit mark sheet once the school gave it to us . We enrolled in the super market and both our parents luckily didn't object to it , even though we didn't really ask them for their blessing.  Reason being, it wasn't a proper family set up, we were just people living together doing things for our own pleasure and self respect and ensured no one died. The fact that we will be bringing in some money into the families was the cherry on the top for our folks. Life went on normally, I used to have a simple routine and spend most of my daytime in the shop. To me, that was heaven for multiple reasons. I made money, spent time with a girl I really liked , there was tea/coffee three times a day  with some butter biscuits , there was air conditioning, I had uniforms and I developed self respect for what I did.  I didn't give the full money I made in the shop to my parents. We decided to not let our parents know about the actual salary , for obvious reasons. I decided to slowly build some savings from this opportunity. 

On some lucky days, me and kanaka will be working in the same booth and we will really work extra motivated those days. I learnt computer skills, basic sales skills, alertness and shrewdness in checking items and calculating offers etc and got to meet people way over my station , rich people, other language people and old folks etc. I felt life was finally showing some mercy on me. Often I used to get backpain because of the constant standing and billing , but a nice warm shower in the next morning fixes me magically. Sometimes the shop rolls out 50% off  offers on weekends and boy, it is hell for all of us sales folks. We have to do so much inventory work, pricing, package checking , cleaning , shelf arrangement and crowd management apart from the horrible billing work because the crowds will go crazy. Sometimes I used to recognize repeat customers and some of them used to bring me some used clothes or buy snacks from the store itself for me on their expense , and rarely some have even tipped me over the billing amount. I am not used to such acts of kindness and goodwill and it was very humbling to me. I have had such questionable upbringing but thankfully the one thing I did well in life was to not give in to such bad patterns.  I wasn't much attracted to smoking or drinking but the only adolescent vice I had was to watch some porn magazines which my boys used to bring whenever we met.  

One of those offer days, a customer had billed goods for 5000 INR and were in great hurry.  From their outlook and mannerisms , it was an easy call to deduce that they were rich. Out of their hurry, they went forgot their credit card at my counter and thankfully that day kanaka was my billing partner. She promised to manage the line while I quickly went to return the card to their owner . By that time, they were at the parking lot and were not even aware of the situation. When I stopped them to return the card, the man got out of the car and had a long look at me. He said, the card had no upper limit on daily spends and required no authorization for spending.  He grabbed me by my young tired self-respecting shoulders and told me that I was just one decision away from misusing the card to my whim. The reason why he was in a hurry was because they were leaving for Bangalore in 2 days and and they had to restock the provisions for the week for their college son to manage until they returned.  He gave me his number and asked me to come see him that evening after my shift. I went with high hopes to their flat, he invited me in and offered tea , snacks and asked about me . He then said, If I was interested , he was willing to hire me as an office assistant for his business once he returned.  I took a moment to think and honestly told him that his house was a bit far from my place and the travel cost and time might be a challenge for me. He then asked me to wait outside and had a long discussion with his wife. 

He then called me and told me, he will clear out the godown in the basement, and I can come and stay there with them and work during the day and retire back to the basement for the night . He said , that since he was permitting me to live and use the facilities of the house, I will be paid bi-monthly only as I will not be charged for any rent . I was allowed to eat , work and stay at their house and return to my family twice a month. I was also required to help on other affairs of the house like gardening, helping his college son with basic errands etc . I was basically adopted into their home with such good conditions . I agreed to everything he said . He finally gifted me with a basic cellphone with sim to be accessible to the family at all times. Life finally became heaven for me.  

I told a lie to my parents that I got a job in another city and promised to visit them once in a while. Kanaka continued to work in the shop and we met whenever I went to visit my parents to give money to them for their expenses. I gave some money to the local shop owners who had been feeding me all these years out of their selfless compassion.  They refused till the end but they finally accepted it when I said it was about my self respect . They told me, this was the cleanest money their hands ever touched and I became emotional.

I am telling all this to remind each one of you , how blessed your lives are , even for the most basic of things. If you had a family that cared, a place to live , good health and sound Personal ethics and character , you already won at life.  Be grateful , be a good person. That's all that matters.

PS : 

All of this is fiction , but I was moved and inspired by simply looking at a sales boy today in a major supermarket when I had gone to purchase my monthly grocery and decided to write about people like him.  Thanks for patiently reading !