The Dude

This is a true incident which happened yesterday. I was spending a lazy day at a friends place away from office when my servant called. He informed that the Movers and Packers guy is at home to collect some money. I was supposed to pay 1300 bucks to M&P that had moved Vamsi’s stuff and they had sent their employee to collect the money.

Now I don’t expect these employees (Milkman, Pizza-delivery-guy, Newspaper-bill-waala etc) to stand outside the apartment and wait, but these people are way too humble, and do not mind waiting outside for a minute or two. As a result, by convention, they’re not even invited inside.

But when I reached home, I was surprised to see this guy who had made himself comfortable on the sofa and was chatting up with my servant. He was certainly no ordinary guy employed by M&P. He was the dude. He had droopy eyes, long brown hair – dirty to the extent of being ghastly, and was stinking of alcohol at 2 in the afternoon. The dude was so repulsive that even I felt disgusted.

The first question this dude asked me was ‘Sir, did you have your lunch?’ This came as a surprise. He sounded fascinating, and confident. I replied, ‘Yes I did, and did you have your lunch?’. He said no, and I stopped the conversation there. I knew where he was going, I had no intention to invite him over for lunch.

I paid the money, and he reluctantly returned the change. He was expecting 200 bucks as tip, but to his disappointment, I did not comply. He did not get up to leave, so I called his boss and told him that I have paid up. He still sat there, and I was thinking about the best way to ask him to get out, and never show his frightening face again. As I was planning my next move, he pointed to the bar (booze inside a glass cupboard in the living room) and to my utter dismay, asked, ‘Sir, one peg of scotch?’ There was a humble request in his eyes, which I noticed for the first time.

What happened next was interesting.