Boredom is something that catches up very fast with me, in Makkah there are limited things one can do, as sources of entertainment are very few. Now I can’t keep praying the whole day and I was tired of watching BBC news nor could I understand Arabic to watch the few channels that were aired. I could go and shop to my heart’s content thus making my Hubby miserable, so what did I do? :P
One of my favourite past time is observing people around me, their behaviour and way of talking.(The cheapest and safest past time:-D) In my free time, I used this habit of mine to amuse myself. There were some nice people in our group(people who came through the same tour operator) and some people whom I could gladly dump in the Red Sea.
One such stupid couple, Mr & Mrs T, also from Navi Mumbai. Mr T is a Principal of some Junior College and the wife claims that she did her higher studies from Cambridge University. She is working as a Principal of a respected English school, but I think she must have left her manners in some garbage dumping ground. She couldn’t discipline and control her own three sons, I wonder how the students of her school must be behaving.
She kept ordering everyone around and sat in her place like a queen or managed to look harassed so that others took pity on her and did her bidding. Her three sons kept creating chaos and throwing garbage around. They were eating or drinking something or the other the whole time and this lady kept saying that her kids don’t eat food. They will eat if any place is left remaining in their tummy. She even managed to dump some of the food in the aircraft on our return flight.
She collected lots of waste around her bed(we had to live in tents for five days as a part of Haj ritual), when she saw me eyeing the accumulated thrash, she hastily covered it and scooted out of the tent. Her children kept prancing in the whole tent oblivious to the fact that they were causing discomfort to others, this lady kept on talking to others instead of scolding her brood.
On the day we were to shift to another hotel, the whole day her kids kept troubling and hitting the hotel staff, one of the staff slapped her youngest kid aged 5 years. He promptly told his elder brothers (they must be around 10 and 12 yrs), who started fighting with the staff and this lady showed great swiftness by hitting the staff. She started swearing and yelling like a fish wife, forgetting all the while that she was on a pilgrimage and not on a vacation. She cleverly ignored the fact that her children were doing a lot of mischief and were using lift as a play thing.
She bought(maybe for the first time in her life) some 20 tolas of gold, she was showing off her bangles to whoever stopped to listen to her. I pity such educated people or rather I shouldn’t use the word ‘educated’ for her. I wonder what will be the future of students who pass out from that school.
Everyone in the group were making fun of this couple. It is very important to carry oneself well in company especially if you are boasting of high education. People do expect some sophistication and class from these kind of people.
I have nothing against her personally but as a parent, I wouldn’t like my child to remain in her school after observing her behaviour. Grapes are not sour as the 18 Carat gold was not worth buying.
Do share your similar experiences, I love hearing from my friends..
