A fair aisle

Does anyone wonder how your words might impact others? …do we make a difference to strangers or friends with how we choose to respond? Can we contribute to a level where people stand corrected.…can their or our opinions change.

In an everyday moment that happens countless times in our lives, an incident emerged which made me wonder that way. I always shop at Giant near home, but due to unforeseen circumstances, that day I found myself in the canned vegetables aisle of another supermarket in King of Prussia (a near by town). Unaware of where things are placed in this store I was pacing left, right, back and forth many times looking for this and that. In that routine, I noticed a middle aged, African American lady dressed in a beautiful salwaar kurta (a dress worn by women in India). Commending for her choice to wear clothes of other origin, I moved on. But we bumped next to each other in that “Canned Vegetables” aisle. I couldn’t pass the opportunity to tell her that she was looking pretty in that dress. She gracefully said thank you and asked me if I was from India. Obviously, my skin tone and dark hair gave it away : ) Anyway, we moved on to get sucked in the daily grind. Incidentally, we came across each other in another aisle, she then approached me to chat.

In matter-of-factly way, she mentioned of her recent trip to a hospital, where the nurse (another African American lady) spotted her in the same dress and complimented her. So this lady asked the nurse how did she know what country this dress was from, and the nurse replied “oh ! my daughter in law is a Indian girl”.

While saying this her face clouded with thoughts and she said, “I was surprised that a Indian girl married a African American guy. I know that Indians don’t like marrying into African American families” and with brows high in pensive mood she was moving away.

This is “wrong”, I couldn’t let this lady go on feeling this way…at that moment I carried the burden of speaking on behalf of my fair thinking fellow country people.
I stopped her and gently said, maybe what you feel is an old school thought and that doesn’t hold true anymore. I cant vouch for all but I know a distant cousin of mine who married a African American guy, and you wouldn’t find a happier couple like them, they have 2 kids to prove it too. If I wasn’t happily married and was asked out by good-hearted African American guy, I’d go out. I wanted to say more, but that was not a moment to go on a spiel. With a glimmer in her eyes, she gently patted my shoulders and walked away smiling and nodding her head.

At that split of a second two people from age, culture and thoughts apart were standing together as one with the same thought. We struck a fair balance.

The hours into the day continued to unfurl but my mind didn’t stop wondering, “Did I make a difference, would her opinion change the next time she sees a girl from Indian Heritage!”