I still remember during our childhood in Delhi how eagerly I and my brothers and sister used to wait for Chetri the vegetable vendor for the choicest mango during mango season. He would come to our house in the summer heat, lower is tokri and relax under the fan in our drawing room. My mother would offer him cold water, then he would display dussehri, langra or whatever mango is the flavour then. Side by side he would be talking about his family and enquire about the well being of us. He would spend a good part of the afternoon in our house under the fan. My mother used to pay his dues at the beginning of the month so there was no cash transaction at the time of purchase. Many of our friends had often told me that he was cheating us by charging more. I would tell the same to my mother but she would smile and advise me not to listen to those talks. Chetri was like extended family to us.

All the above thought raced through my mind when I was purchasing dussehri mango from Spencer’s stores. There was no knowing smile from those smartly dressed young sales persons who are frequently changed. Some tried to smile back when I smiled at them, though that smile was artificial. I don’t blame them as because of some family compulsion they might have joined the set up as a stop gap employment. Though they were young but there was a tired look, they had to get up early for this particular outlet of Spencer’s. I can not expect Chetri like treatment from them; we will gradually lose the much needed emotional inputs as the human interaction is becoming more professional. The professionals don’t have time to give that Chetri like treatment. No wonder that the human bonding is gradually getting lost because of these shifts in our daily life caused by the market driven economy. We are gradually becoming selfish, self centered robots

http://mabaker.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/06/are-we-slowly-turning-into-robots.htm