Occupational Hazard

Occupational Hazard

-Ram Prabakar

The scorching sun set its gaze fixedly upon that street. It had no intentions of swaying away. Clouds that came near it got pushed away by its sheer radiance. Not even crows dared to fly under it. All but a lone eagle hunting for its prey stayed out of the sun’s way.

Even as the sun sat there, might personified, he was walking down the street. The color of the tar on the newly laid roads matched the color of his boots.

Nobody in their normal minds would have even considered walking down that road. Not that he was abnormal. It was an occupational hazard. An old man with an umbrella waked past him with a has-this-guy-lost-it expression on his face. So had he really lost it?

A tucked in formal shirt, a neat suit pant, a cap over his head a tie around his neck and a bag that read ‘GSV Electronics’. The hallmarks of the people we see and ignore day after day. Those people who keep coming at us even though they know that they are the least welcome people second only to beggars. Yes! He was a sales representative.

There were two things that he loved about the job. One was the money. It was not much but he had the pride to say that it was born of his effort. The other thing was the people he met every day. He met different people from different walks of life. Rich, poor, rude, soft, kind, affluent he could go like this for the list was endless. But to him beyond all this there were only two kinds of people. The people who bought his product and the people who did not. The product he went around selling was an electronic trimmer.

In the days of online orders and home deliveries sales reps had just become a pain in the back. But the people who brought his product were left spellbound at the way he sold it. Some bought the product just to hear him talk, even though they found no practical use for it. Such was his skill.

Today under the scorching sun he was walking down the street doing his job- ringing bells and getting ignored. Nobody even bothered opening their doors, except one guy.

He opened the door with the hangover of last night evident in his drooping eyes. Clearly he was expecting someone else. Disappointed at looking at the sales rep he went on to close the door.

“ Sir just a minute give me chance to explain…..”

Two minutes later the rep was back on the street with a twinkle in his eye and a customer in his hands. That was his trade.

The next day the sun seemed to have learnt some manners. It did sit majestically over the clouds but there was a pleasant sense to its radiance and warmth.

And there he was sitting by the window, shaving his beard. Yes! Shaving, not trimming!

Along came his friend clearly stunned by what he saw.

“Dude!!!”

“What?”

“This is not fair!!”

What is not fair?”

“Why do you sell that trimmer if you don’t bother to use it?”

“Selling it and using it are two completely unrelated issues”

“How can you sell it if you don’t believe in your product.?”

“Selling it is my occupational hazard, believing it is my own personal interest. I believe in my selling talents and that is more than sufficient to sell it.”

“what do you even get from doing a job that is in every way unrelated?”

“Its for the travel and for the money and for the people. The places I get to see, the money I earn and the people I get to meet. There is at least a hint of passion in mine and I am happy about that.”

His friend looked with a half understood expression on his face.

“And I tell you frankly, that trimmer is crap!”