Shame stares

I’ve just parked in my usual parking spot on the far side of Tesco.
Guy drives in, doing 30mph in the 5 mph zone, straight into the parent and child parking spots next to the door.
In a sports car. No child, or space for a child evident in the car.
While there are loads of non-marked parking spaces all around, including just opposite where he parked.

I walk past his car with my best despicable stare.
He gets out of the car – a seemingly respectable man in his 50s – just as I enter the cafe.

Sadly, for him, he too is coming to the cafe. He orders a tea to take away. I’m still giving him a nasty look.

They accidently make his tea to drink-in. I’m still giving him a bad vibe.

He takes one sip of the tea, drops his head, quietly exits and drives off.

For once, I was on the other side. And I don’t know how to feel about it – I should feel good, but I feel bad.

Beginning

If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;

…

And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;

…

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

Rumour has it…

They wrote me off when I screwed up on my boards and JEE.
They told me off when I went to a private college.
They told me they always believed in me when I got placed the same place that my IIT compatriots went.

They wrote me off when I instead went to work with a small startup.
They laughed at me when I decided to write CAT again instead of joining a smaller college first time around.
They told me they always believed in me when I got through, and joined an IIM.

They told me which jobs to pick and work towards.
They dissed me when I didn’t follow their wise words.
They told me they always believed in me when I got where I wanted.

Rumour has it that they’re writing me off again. It’s a good sign.