An unsuitable suit..!

MANY years back while in business for my father, an interior designer, we would get a contract for the home of the managing director or chairman of a big company. Now in all probability I had already visited him in his office and seen him as a powerful person, but at home, he was oh so different. Suddenly I was at ease and not intimidated by him, his expensive suit or his fancy office.

I decided to find out what change had happened between the visit to the office and his home, and have decided I'll take the role of the powerful man, but at his home, bear with me as we do a role play: The doorbell rings, I, now the MD, but at home, open the door, and there's the plumber I'd called yesterday at my office.

He gasps in surprise; yesterday when he'd seen me at my office, he had seen me behind a mahogany desk, in the fanciest of offices, with a secretary sitting outside, who had made him wait awhile before she let him in. He had seen me as a busy man, and a powerful one at that. As he spoke with me, he had stuttered and stammered, completely out of place in the magnificent surroundings. He had nodded while I told him about the plumbing job at home, and I'd wondered whether he'd heard anything.

'Have a cup of tea!' I had told him, but he had mumbled something about being late for another appointment, which I knew was a lie, and he had rushed away. He was too...