Friday, August 22, 2008

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Every time I visit a restaurant I end up seeing things which further strengthens my determination that I must not be frequenting this hotel again.
After placing the order, I generally have the habit of looking at folks who have occupied the other tables and inevitably my eyes get stuck on a cute little kiddo who is so excited of being in a hotel.
The kid is oblivious of its surroundings and is busy rattling its wishlist to his mommy, starting of from ice cream to pizza to dosa...., however what really grabs my attention is the child's hands. The child is so impatient and it has no mind to wait for the food to arrive ( so are we most of the time...) so the child first coyly picks up the forks and spoons on the table and start fidgeting with it.
Then with some boldness, it the turn of the bunch of straws that are kept on the table, the child very religiously picks up each and every straw and puts the same in its mouth. After ensuring that each of them are loaded with sufficient saliva the kiddo places them on the table... mind you on the table .....
Hey it does not stop here. The annoying act is yet to come and what adds to my irritation is not what the kid does, but what the mother does, who is otherwise busy chatting on the phone does. After giving the child a threatening look, she picks each and every straw, but wait a minute, she does something more childish that what the kid just did.
She places all of them back in the orginal glass where they were kept and gives herself a big smile for exhibiting her origamy skills.
Their order arrives and they gorge on it and leave the table after much fanfare.
The story does not end here.... Just as they are leaving a set of people arrive and directly head towards the same table which appears to clean but little do they know that the same set of straws are still donning the table.
The kid cannot be blamed but the parents.... they never get tired of bragging about their skills in parenting.. but what about learning some social responsibility themselves and thereafter teaching their kids ...

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