4 weeks ago my pizza guy called. Yes, ‘my pizza guy’: Max from Venus Pizza, the only halal pizzeria in the City. I ordered pizza from there about twice a week last year, so often that Max would ask, ‘The usual?’, instead of me explaining what I wanted (the #3 deal with the #12 pizza, a Coke and garlic bread instead of the chicken wings) every time.
Me: “Hello?”
Max: “Hello brother, this is Max. I wanted to call and say hello…”
Me: “Oh hi Max, uhh…”
Max: “…and see if everything’s OK.”
Me: “Yes, yes, everything’s fine…”
Awkward silence.
Me: “So you’re probably wondering where I’ve been…”
Max: nervous chuckle
Me: “I moved out of the area, you see, now I’m near Holborn.”
Max: “Oh. Oh. Yes, I was wondering if everything was OK, you haven’t called us in a long time.”
Me: “Yes, yes, hehe, but thank you for calling. I hope you’re well…”
Max: “Yes, Alhamdulillah. Well, ma’assalam brother.”
Me: “Yes, walaikum salam.”
2 weeks ago, at the very end of Ramadan, I was at the checkout at Sainsbury’s. By some strange coincidence, I’ve found myself at the same cashier’s till quite frequently, a middle-aged African woman with a gap between her teeth. (I wondered if maybe I was selecting a particular line subconsciously, but the lines there are very long, and the tills are set up so that it’s impossible to know where one is going to end up.) Up till this point, we had never exchanged a word, except for my perfunctory “hello’s” and “thank you’s”.
Me: “Hello.” I start unloading my basket.
Her: “Hi.”
Pause as she starts swiping my pile of pastas.
Her: “You’ve lost weight.”
Me: Slightly incredulous. “Yes, I’m fasting.”
Her: “Oh. You should pray for me.”
Me: Slightly weirded out. “Uhh, of course, what do you want?”
Her: “I need to save enough money to go home.”
Me: Feeling slightly like Cain from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. “Yes, I’ll pray for you.”
Her: Smiles, hands me my receipt.
Me: Smile, nod, walk away.
A week ago, I signed up for the eFinancialCareers website because I had spotted an interesting job in Dubai and wanted to apply for it. One of the questions in the signup form was whether I wanted to make my resume searchable. I didn’t think much of it and ticked it, submitted the form, and went to sleep (11PM). At 8:45AM, I got a phone call on my cell phone.
Caller: “Hello, is this Mr. Aku-eel?”
Me: Slightly groggy. “Yes…”
Caller: “My name is ______. Is this a good time for you to talk?”
Me: “Well, that depends on what this is about…”
Caller: “Well I saw your resume on eFinancialCareers and I wanted to have a chat with you about some positions I’m recruiting for. Now there’s one with the fixed income analytics group at <bulge bracket US bank>…”
Me: “Wait, you saw my resume on eFinancial? I’m not actually looking for a job right now…”
Caller: “Uhh, you’re at <my previous employer> right?”
Me: “No, I left to pursue a Masters degree…”
Caller: “Really? In what?”
Me: “Uhh, math…”
Caller: “Hmm…right, OK, so you’re not looking right now then?”
Me: “Nope. Sorry for the confusion.”
Caller: “Yes, well. When do you graduate?”
Me: “June or July.”
Caller: “OK, well, I’m going to put you down in my diary if you don’t mind then, and we’ll have a chat in July. How’s that?”
Me: “Uhh, OK. Thanks.”
Caller: “Not a problem, have a nice day!” Click.
Five minutes later, another phone call.
Caller: “Hello, Mr. A-keel?”
Me: “Yes?”
Caller: “Hi, my name is ______. I saw your resume on eFinancialCareers and I have a spot I’m trying to fill that you’re going to be really interested in. It’s credit derivative analytics, mostly C++…”
Me: “Hang on, sorry, look…I’m not looking for a job right now.”
Caller: “But your resume…”
Me: “Yes, I know. I’m going to take it down…”
Caller: Sounding more hurt than pissed off. “Uhh, why’d you put it up then?”
Me: “It was a mistake, I’ll take it down.”
Caller: Click.
I got two more calls after that, the last after I had taken the resume down. Not that I’m complaining ;)
The first person (brother from the pizza place) does care, the lady at the counter was a nice story. I don’t get the efinancials one though. I mean mashallah it is great to know that you are in such demand and inshallah you will find a great job after graduation. But why is it under people that care heading? I know I am being annoying here. :-)
well take care of yourself, I might get a chance to play cricket with a team here.
Obviously, ‘care’ can be used for all sorts of relationships — businessmen ‘care’ about their customers just as headhunters ‘care’ about recruits. So, ‘caring’ happens in fiduciary relationships as much as personal relationships. It’s subtle, but the point I was making was, at the end of the day, who cares why people care?
hello -
a & i just read this post - hilarious. max was so cute to call… you sd visit him sometime…like javed bhai & the qatlama wala guy in birmingham! as we scrolled down the page to read the story, a kept saying: is this the same story?!? … and then he said you’re writing like musharraf! ( i.e few transitional sentences…)
anyway - funny.
a.
Allah mian caring is the most exciting bit here. Mashallah. I like the check out lady a lot. There was something cinematic about that one.
And the transitions were jes fine!
I love this post! It is so sweet…. and shows you just how nice(for lack of a better word) people are, and how at least the first 2 (Max and check-out lady) show we aren’t all completely insensitive to each other like the media is always insinuating….
Yeah…for lack of a better word :)