Good man, bad man¹

What an experience I had in Hawaii with a good man and with a bad man! I will start with the bad man. I had been running every day — three times a day. Of course, my running is really jogging, but there were people there who were worse than I am. I was so happy, so delighted that there were worse runners: their legs were crooked, their muscles were no good. I enjoyed watching them. I wanted to take movies of them so that I would be able to watch them at home and amuse myself.

So I went to a camera store while Savyasachi went into another store. When I talked to the owner, he was so nasty — very bad! O God, I really wanted to say something. How could someone be so mean? He must have been taught by God or the devil. Finally he started writing out the bill. Usually, in a restaurant or store, people get nice at the end. Even if they have been nasty to the customers, they get nice when it is time to get paid. But this man was nasty to the end. When I was about to give him the money, still he was showing such an unkind face. So I said, “You are such a hopeless fellow,” and I didn’t take the camera. I didn’t even feel sorry for him. I just left, without waiting to hear what the man had to say.

There were no other camera stores in that particular mall, so Savyasachi took me to a different place to find another camera shop. Here we had just the opposite experience. The man in the camera shop was so kind — explaining everything on his own. Such a nice man! I decided I would definitely buy something there. And his prices were much cheaper. Then he gave me the bill, and I saw that he had charged me eleven dollars too much. He was not trying to deceive me; he just made a mistake.

Since he was such a nice man, I wanted to give him the extra eleven dollars without saying anything. O God, when he went to the cash register, he found the mistake. He said, “Please excuse me. I have charged you eleven dollars too much.” Then he came over to me and gave me back the eleven dollars. So, if a store owner or anyone is kind and nice, people will want to buy things or give things to him. Just before, in the other camera store, I left without giving any money because the man was so nasty.

Bad luck! The day I wanted to take pictures, my friends were not available. Very few crooked legs I saw. But in general, people usually have very peculiar styles. Out of sixty or seventy runners that I see in a day, only four or five will have a good style. The rest will be all bad, all bad!