This is my experience on 7 April 2009 while having a cup of tea at a very famous Dose shop in Jayanagar Bangalore. Its called Ganesh Darshan. It is more popularly known as Dose Camp. As a matter of fact Dose at Ganesh darshan can be regarded as one of the best available in the city.
It is a common sight in a crowded city like Bangalore to find hawkers everywhere. We find them in all crowded roads and at prominent eat outs and temples.
The greatest problem faced by these hawkers are the policemen. Policemen are generally very harsh on the Hawkers. Unless the hawkers grease their palms, policemen would not allow them to do their petty business.
Generally in all these darshini type eat-outs, people stand and eat. Due to space constraints, its a common thing for people to stand on the foot path and sip their drink or enjoy the delicacies. Policemen do not trouble the customers since they normally have a tie up with the darshini restaurant/eat-out.
Today was a scene which was slightly different. When i was enjoying an awesome cup of tea standing on the foot path of main road in jayanagar, i saw a petty flower vendor pleading with the security guard of Ganesh darshan. He wanted to spread a sheet below a tree in front of the restaurant and sell some flowers. The security guard(a private security guard employed by the restaurant) would not allow him to do so. I listened to the conversation for few minutes. The hawker was pleading him. Then i interrupted the conversation. I was little annoyed by the security guard's behaviour. The foot path does not belong to him. So i asked him what authority does he have to prevent the hawker from doing his business. He told me that he has been instructed by the restaurant's owner. He told me that the customer's at the restaurant complain that the hawkers on the foot path disturb them(customers). So the security has been asked to drive them away.
Its such an unfair world. People who pay 20 rupees for a dose and 8 rupees for a cup of tea can stand on the foot path and eat or drink and also disturb the pedestrians. But nobody questions them just because they belong to the middle class and they pay. The poor hawker would be making may be 10 rupees per a yard of tied flowers.
Well this is common. We all of us see these in our daily life. There was one interesting stuff here. It was security guard's job to drive the hawker away. It was hawker's job to sell the flowers. Both of them have to do their job to fill their stomach. If only the hawker sells his flowers he can fill his stomach and only if the security guard drives the hawker away he can fill his stomach (otherwise he will lose his job). Its such a paradox, one person to fill his stomach will have to hit the other person's stomach.
Adam smith, the father of economics said that under perfect competition, "No one can be better off without making someone else worse off". This incident was in perfect affirmation of Smith's theory. There was certainly a competition to fill the stomach.
So its neither the security guard's mistake nor the Hawker's mistake. Its the mistake of the customers at the restaurant. It is they who occupy the foot path meant for pedestrians and cause problems for themselves and the pedestrians.
if you want to sit inside and eat the price of the dosa will not be Rs 20 but rs 50.
ReplyDeleteThe Restaurant is equally to be blamed. In all probability they would have placed some tables on the Footpath thus encouraging customers to stand and eat outside. If the flower vendor instead of placing his mat, moves around with his wares it would be a win-win for everbody !!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you Sunil, this is one instance that we find in every day life. There are so many people who spend big money to eat in costly restaurants and the very people, when some poor and aged person asks for help, they don't even bother to give a look at these people. Sometimes it feels really sad to see so much of poverty and under privileged people not being respected or helped. The only question that i get always in my mind when i see these people is what is it being like them, where they are being disregarded by the society, how do they sustain themselves. Its really sad to see these people and much more sad when I cannot help them in anyway.
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