The Local Teller

Lately, I have not been going to the same branch. Time has not really been my best friend. Last time I met her, she was really busy and pretended I did not exist. No, I did not make a move or even try to behave in a certain way - of course I remembered the chivalry points I had earned last time. This time however - like every guy out there - I was pleasantly surprised.

Most offices are closed on Saturdays except banks and certain companies that believe people who work for them are workers and not employees. I walked into the branch and was happy to see there was no other customer waiting. Realized my good luck, I moved forward quickly. As I got the cash out I heard someone call out my name prefixed with the traditional Arabic welcome "Ahlan!". I looked up and realized she remembered my name.

In normal circumstances I would not be bothered. Not because there are lots of other women who remember my name and another one would just be like a drop in the ocean, but because I know its part of their job to be courteous to customers. But this was a local Emirati woman who wouldn't bother remembering her closest friends name let alone a customer.

The conversation as I remember it:

She: "How are you? How can I help you?"

Me: "I'm good, how are you? Just wanted to make a payment."

She": Sure sure" She took the account number and the money.

Me: "You are working on a Saturday?"

She: "Yes, what can I do, lot of work"

Me: "Yeah I can imagine. Things are not that good nowadays anyway"

She: "Where are you from?"

I started turning red (more like pink but that's a girly color so I will live in denial) which was something I felt that she noticed. Got a hold of myself and thought of my response. In a flash, I thought of all the past responses that I got when I've answered in complete truth: "ohh, I thought you were South African", "You're travelling to the UK, I thought you were English", "Are you Lebanese", and the worst "you don't look Pakistani". So I had a few choices.

Me: "I'm from Pakistan but I was born in Dubai". I had to create some connection and even though I knew where she was from I still asked: "where are you from?".

She": I'm from here. Why, I don't look like from here?"

Me: "No, no, of course you do". I realized if there were points for asking dumb, irrelevant questions, I'd have the highest points, hands down. Recovering from the fall my next question had AWESOMENESS written all over

Me: "There is no name tag, what is your name?"

She: Looked at me with the look that said - at least to me - 'it took you so long to ask?' "ABC"

I heard the name and thought of one person who has the same name: my mother. I thought of telling her that, but realized that might just murder all my chances (even though I am very sure there aren't any). Instead, I gave her the most traditional desi response taken from a typical Bollywood movie: "thats a nice name". She looked at me with the look that said 'cant you do any better than that?'.

I left the branch with a big "L for Loser" written all over my forehead. It took me minutes to forget about the incident. I still feel however that the movie is not over yet. I plan to visit the branch again for another payment at the end of the month.