Butchers have to be smiling these days

Dr. Sarfaraz K Niazi (e-mail: niazi@niazi.com)

Just behind the Dime Centre in Clifton, there is a little shop, neatly laid out and camouflaged by a vegetable hawker where you will find a butcher who can put IBM salesmen to shame. He can easily sell refrigerators to Eskimos. What works for him is not his artistic abilities to carve meat or the quality of his product but his art of handling clients. His name is Yusuf and you can easily recognize him by a sardonic smile permanently plastered on his face.

I discovered Yusuf when my wife nudged me one day to act more manly and save the family from the perpetual short-changing by our driver when he makes the weekly meat purchases. So, like the rest of the members of this vanishing species of true males, I ventured into Yusuf's shop. Well, there he was sitting on his throne surrounded by cold meats and I couldn't resist breaking ice by asking him if he has read Saadat Hasan Minto. He smiled. There it is was his best knife. And he would continue to smile not only when crafting his art but also when assaulted by some of the most unruly crowd in town. He would respond them all with a cool smile.

Over the past several months, Yusuf and I have developed an acquaintance that often takes years to consummate. There is very little exchange of words but much is said with gestures and smiles. Yusuf's customers are of varied type. Take for example the illegal alien servants who continually insist on having the best cut and in the same breath ask for an extra empty bag. They consistently get an extra bag. Then there are those perfectly cultured and perfumed housewives, just woke up from their late night parties but dressed in creased shalwars, who would immediately draw Yusuf's attention and that of every one else in the shop as they enter the shop with a sigh, "Yusuf Bhai." He would return the courtesies with a sparkle in his eye and a broader smile that barely manages to keep the perpetual contents of his mouth within. He would never give them the meat they select; instead, he will smile and wink slightly as he would make his own selection to assure them they are the best customer

Yusuf's ability to keep so many satisfied customers is refreshing and infectious. And it comes from a special habit he has developed

[06 January 1995 The Daily Dawn]