The ego trip
More than thirty years ago, as a student I went to interview a Maharajah. I had a prior appointment with him. I went to the palace on a bicycle. The security man at the gate stopped me and talked to me in an abusive tone. He just could not accept that a stupid college student on a bicycle had an appointment with the Rajah. The Rajahsaheb who was sitting in the garden saw me and walked down the whole way, to receive me; he took me inside and made me sit on a throne like chair and himself sat only after I was comfortably seated. The interview went on so well that later I was invited to a dinner hosted by the Rajah for the President of India. He treated me like a Rajah while the peon at the gate treated me like a peon. The attitude with which you treat others perhaps depends on the altitude that you are in. Today we have one of our very popular writers in the guest column talking about the giant sized ego of Pygmies.