Karma at Grocery Store

Ah...."Karma". The word reverberates more whenever I hear it from Steve Jobs.......Oh! Fine!! Coming to the subject....Since I'm a woman with limited brain edition, I never had thought of Karma until one day I stumbled upon a  website that detailed on Karma. I read, assimilated, and eventually I forgot. I had no idea this reading is going to play a role in my shopping at Whole Foods.

 People go to Whole foods for so many reasons. I go to Whole foods for one reason..."the gummy bears" because,

1) they don't have gelatin
2) they dont have artificial colors
3) they are quite expensive so buy less eat less
4) my kids dont like, so I get to eat all by myself. This should be the number one reason, don't you think so?


Now, back to  "gummy bears".....  Imagine a long cylindrical container.  Oops!! Made a mistake.  Imagine a long cylindrical glass container with a funnel shaped opening at the bottom. Let's attach the glass cylinder do the wall.  Awesome!! You have good imagination.  At Whole foods,  the gummy bears will be in  the long cylindrical glass container, attached to the wall, five feet above from the ground level.  A lever runs across the container and you have to pull the lever to  pop the gummy bears out. It goes without saying that, you have to hold a paper bag to catch the popping gummy bears.  

On that day, I gaped at the gigantic glass container  full of gummy bears for few seconds.  After few seconds, I pulled the lever.. Much to my dismay, the lever didn't work. I tried again. The status was the same. My husband tried, my daughter tried. The lever was in no mood to work. I went in search of a team member and brought him to the problem.  Only we didn't know he was a "problem" too.  He didn't try pulling the lever, he didn't talk politely or properly and he left the place saying that he was too busy taking care of something else.  We were shocked first, then  annoyed and angered by his reckless behavior.  I could feel the anger bubbling inside me. I was all ready to go overboard, in spite of my husband's advice, when "Karma" thing flashed through my mind. It said  " Whenever people behave in an unexpected way, do not fight back, be quiet, accept them, forgive them and be grateful to them". I am not a character of accepting or forgiving. Being grateful is out of question.  I react back with lightening speed. I am neither ashamed nor proud of my character.   But on that day,  I wanted to give  "Karma" a try.  With too much difficulty and too much effort, I kept quiet and contained my anger.

 Destiny played its part.  I went to Whole foods the following week.  I finished my purchases and walked straight to that gummy bear aisle.   Without wasting a second, I grabbed a paper bag and pulled the lever.  Well, what to do you know!! The lever worked. 

The gummy bears were looking colorful and heavenly inside the paper bag.  I looked at them with
profound love !! To cut the story short, the lady at the cash counter was scanning my purchases and bagging them.  She took the paper bag , entered the product code and…..the computer screen went blank.  She pressed some keypad buttons and entered the code again.  The screen went blank again.    She tried four or five times.  The screen went blank each time.  She looked at me and said,

"Mam, I'm afraid you can't buy this.  I am not able to enter the product code."

My happiness dissolved and disappointment evolved.  I felt awful standing there.   If I had bursted out on that day, I would have had the satisfaction of being myself, but now I neither have gummy bears nor satisfaction was my thought.  I hid my  irreparable loss and  nodded my head.  She put the gummy bears bag away.  I finished paying for my purchases, lifted my carry bag when she called. I looked at her.   She was having the gummy bear  bag in her hand.

"Mam, you can have this," she handed the bag to me.  I was totally confused that I didn't utter a word.  But she talked again.

"You have been waiting here patiently. You deserve this." Saying that she dropped the gummy bear bag into my carry bag and took the next customer.  For a moment I didn't understand what happened.  But when I understood, I was out of this world.  I felt  numerous bubbles of happiness popping inside me. I was not able to contain my smile.   I started liking the gummy bears better than before.

Did I get the gummy bears because I didn't yell back? I don't know.  Am I going to follow the "act of keeping quiet" the next time?  I don't know.  All I know is KARMA rocks.  

Tail Piece:

"What did you buy at Whole Foods?"  asked husband. 

"Caarrma"  



No comments:

Post a Comment