Shops without Shopkeepers

 

by: kapil kumar, tara house, bhowali, Uttrakhand

In cities people are so used to surveillance that they might doubt honesty and sincerity of some people. Whenever I go to hills and even in tarak region of Uttrakhand the farmers are so generous that they give their produce even free of cost. And city people think there might be some hidden agenda to it. But for them it’s a regular affair. Farmers in India have big hearts though they are treated badly by the society. This story is about shops without shopkeepers that too in India. Isn’t that amazing !!!

This is a rare story that can compel you to think about being honest. In Malls there is so much sensored surveillance that you just can’t take anything out of any shop and on top of that Thor are pyshical guards and even CCTV cameras to keep an eye on you but there is place in India that can boast of shops without shopkeepers. It is a place called Seling which keeps things in an open shop and leave it for the costumers to pay themselves.

45 kms from Aizwal the capital of state of Mizoram in the North East lies a small hamlet called Seling. For centuries there is a tradition to believe in principles of honesty and sincerity of humans. So they don’t gaurd their shops. Come and take what you want and pay what you want. TRUST & GENEROSITY are the guiding principles of the local people here. They believe that a human who isn’t honest is an animal.

In local language the custom of Shops without shopkeepers is called Ngah Lou Daws culture. And you would be surprised even more that if you don’t have money you can still take things and say THANK YOU and no one will question you. These kinds of HONEST shops are found in Swiss and Germany too but we must feel proud that Indian people too keep these kinds of traditions ALIVE