Short-changed with words of courtesy...

"Are you together?" she asks. We look at each other and we're not quite sure what she means.
Were we 'together', I mean, yes, technically we were together, but we weren't together, if you see what I mean.

We both look at her again.

"No," "Yes." This was starting to get awkward and rather uncomfortable.

There was a moment of silence, before my friend decided to reinforce our stance again.
My friend and I decided to order another round of coffee and for some reason this was turning out to be more confusing and complicated than we were expecting it to be.

You would think that buying a cup of coffee was easy in this country. I certainly thought so. Well, think again.

"Can we just get our change back please?"

But the lady behind the counter still looked at us with puzzlement, her mouth slightly ajar.
I thought to myself, maybe the concept of returning change was foreign to this young lady here.
But normally, when you pay for something, you expect your change back - if there was any - and in our case, there was.

Besides, what kind of question was that? "Are you together?!?" Hello?! It's none of your darned business. It's not like we're socialising here, unless its company policy for the staff to try and get to intimately know their customers. I don't know about you, but I find that somewhat rude.

"We don't have change," she finally told us, but it sounded to me more like a question, which was odd.

I had to laugh. Here we were, at one of the biggest coffee house franchise in the world and they don't have any change for a couple of cups of coffee. Do you realise how absurd that sounds? It always baffled me whenever I am at a big store (and I'm not talking about your local grocery store here, I'm talking major worldwide franchises and such) and I'm dealt the "do you have change?" routine.

Some shopkeepers look at BD20 notes as if they were contaminated with radiation.
Eventually the counter-lady caves in and, from her secret stash tucked away in her 'cash-register', she hands our change back - but not without a a disdainful look.

I'm exasperated by the behavioural patterns of certain individuals in certain positions. And the way many staff treat their customers as if they were coming from Pluto, some are always willing to take you for a ride at any chance.

I'm sure you've been through these before yourself. Waiters never returning your change and deciding for themselves, on your behalf, to take the last 400 or 500 fils as a tip. I don't care if my change is only 10 fils, you just don't take people's money like that! It's about principals, rights and more importantly, at least to me, it's about being courteous to others.

It appears courtesy is a concept hard for many to grasp; we don't seem to have any of it around.
Seriously people, would it kill us to smile at a stranger every once in a while? Would it kill us to hold the door for the person behind us? Would it kill us to look at each other as equals?

Maybe we need a School of Courtesy in this country, maybe then we'll truly "progress".


*Appeared in GDN Vol XXIX , NO. 300, Sunday, 14th January 2007