Let me explain myself

A couple of weeks ago, during liaison psychiatry, my Dean, the Pychiatrist was answering a question by a colleague of mine about Type A personality. He gave this example to illustrate his answer:

"Imagine yourself bumping into a lecturer down the hall... you greet him, but he doesn't greet back, or worse, look at you and show no acknowledgement whatsoever..."

"A person with Type A personality would feel very offended, very hurt even... may even wonder what he or she might have done to receive that treatment..."

"But a non-Type A personality would think that the lecturer may have been too busy or too preoccupied to respond as they cross path... so no big deal... and forgets about it..."

*disturbed*

By his description, I'm pure breed Type A.

I'm constantly preoccupied with doing stuff for other people, and I fool myself that I'm doing stuff for myself, for my own good, and for the good of all.

I need to strike a balance, I need to be more selfish.

Today I was very disturbed (it spoiled my whole afternoon)... I had a little confrontation with Mr. Gopal, the proprietor of an Indian food outlet just outside my faculty...

Let me summarize the whole thing first... he's very double standard... he serves students with less food, less courtesy, but of course the same charge, and he's also very dumb. He can't count simple arithmetic with the help of a simple calculator. But he's a towering of a man, and very crude, with an alcoholic facies.

First he made us wait for a long time before taking our order for the food, and also skipped us for other "working" people (doctors, and posher-looking people) to take orders for our drinks (my friends and I)...

So when he finally came to my table, and pretended to "scold" his workers for not taking our drink orders... so I couldn't stand his attitude and snapped, "It's about time somebody took our orders!" The words didn't reflect my true dissatisfaction, but I'm sure my tone and my facial expression said it all...

He retorted, "What's your problem?"

I glared at him, and I could see his eyes bloodshot... and I remembered Raj telling me that it was rumoured that a few of his workers quit their job because he or his wife hit them.

*shit*

But he suddenly remembered that I was customer (he inhaled more deeply) and he rephrased, "What do you want?" But there was scorn in his voice.

Then my colleague sitting next to me looked a bit worried, so I didn't want to stress her any further, so I just acted as if nothing was happening and placed my order (at the back of my mind I praying that he would not spit into my drink).

I felt victorious, but it was short-lived... I felt that I didn't get him enough... and that bothered me the whole afternoon.

*shit*

What's for sure is that I won't go for anymore meals there. The question now remains is whether I would "spread" this around and rally support to boycott the food outlet. I know Raj and his other friends have already been doing it for quite a while... they have valid reasons...

If someone really deserves a certain treatment, isn't it as simple as they simply deserve it?

Cheers!