Editor,
I would like to highlight an incident that happened on Sep 29, 2017 at around 7:00-8:00 PM when we went to Vishal mall for shopping. As my cousin and I were waiting for the others to be done with their shopping near the counters, we saw this unpleasant scene that really made me question who hires the help in Vishal.
As it is, it is the festive season, Vishal Mart was hectic and the customer lines were really long. There were these two employees in Vishal that were really disrespectful to these two customers. These two people had to change counters three times because the cashiers kept on closing the counters on different pretext. So when one of the two raised his voice asking why they kept closing the counters, the women cashier started shouting at the two men asking them to answer her if, “she was human?” The elderly gentleman not understanding English told her to speak in Hindi but the woman kept on lashing out on him. And then another male employee (as I heard him being called Regen) came and started shouting at the elderly man. The poor man couldn’t do anything as those two unruly employees started lashing out at him and the male employee (Regen) went as far as slapping the elderly man. He was then sent out of the mall without being able to purchase any of the things that he was going to buy. He was really dejected because all he came there for was to buy some things and no one stood up for him.
Is this how the cashiers who are there to serve the customers supposed to behave with them just because they are non- tribals? The male employee (Regen) even brought up the communal aspect when this had nothing to do with it. This is purely about poor customer service.
Being a young woman I couldn’t do anything to help the elderly man and I’m writing this so that the higher ups in Vishal Mart can check the CCTVs cameras for the above incident and take appropriate action against those employees involved so that these unpleasant incidents are not repeated and so that customers like us do not hesitate to step into Vishal Mart again.
Yours etc.,
Sanriiariti Kharbuli,
Via email
Tourism a booming enterprise!
Editor
This refers to your report “Act together to boost tourism: CM to all depts.” (ST- Sept 28, 2017). Tourism is travel for recreation, leisure or business purposes and it has now become a popular global leisure activity. Tourism is the engine of economic growth. Tourism helps in women empowerment and youth employment. We all know that when Tourism has become a continuously growing and developing economic sector worldwide because of the occurrence of various attractive and new destinations for the tourists. Tourism has also become the main source of income for the developing countries. Tourism today plays a vital role in bringing the world closer as it has been a major social phenomenon of societies all over the world and it is driven by the natural urge of every human being for new experiences, and the desire to be both educated and entertained. Every time we travel, for whatever reason, we are part of a global movement; a movement that has the power to drive inclusive development, create jobs and build sustainable societies we want for our future. Perhaps every citizen can play the role of city ambassador and play courteous hosts. Each one of us is responsible for contributing our bit to protect the natural resources of our planet.
We live in such a country that others dream of visiting and becoming wiser by the experience. Can’t we help them with the right directions, authentic fares, uniform pricing and respect for the personal space of tourists while maintaining basic facilities that we ourselves are comfortable in using? We must remember that tourism is an ever-evolving and thriving industry that contributes to the economic wellbeing of every nation and generates lakhs of employment opportunities besides focusing on environment-friendly measures.
Yours etc.,
Vinod C. Dixit
Ahmedabad- 15