July 05, 2005

A True Story of Karma

As I was waiting for my husband get the key from our flat, I was suddenly reminded of a story of Karma that happened last year when I was living in Hong Kong.

Husband and I are both working in the hotel industry. Back in HK we were working in two different hotels. When we get back home, we would talk about, what happened with our respective days and the "regular" guests that were notorious or just a plain pain in the a$$. One night, husband began talking about Mrs. P. She was an American woman who had been living in and out of HongKong and China and was a loyal and regular guest of the hotel . She had a daughter, Ms. P who was also her partner in her Toy ( as in children's toys) import business. Mrs. P was always mean and angry. She was very arrogant and demanding. when she enters the hotel lobby every hotel employee has to be alerted so they can be prepared with the agony of service for her. When staying in the hotel, she would demand for the almost impossible things like milk warmed at a certain degree, certain fresh fruits cut in a certain way or fried eggs that must be cook by a specific person only etc etc. She was also always in a shouting mode. Her office is nearby the hotel and normally she will just request for a cab to take her there. When the cab driver could not understand her English, she would literally kick the back of the chair of the driver and start screaming at him telling him how incompetent he was blah blah blah... The daughter, Ms. P was a mini me of the mom in every way possible. She was a practising witch in the making.
Being in the hotel industry, we had nothing else to do but still give service with a smile. No matter how unreasonable the guests are we still need to have the patience and be as porfessional as we could. The closest thing that we could vent it out is to talk about it. One dinner with hotelier friends,the topic of Mrs. P and her daughter came up. Apparently, she died in a car accident in China in November last year. Well... not really a car accident but "an accident". Mrs. P needed to go to China to check her warehouses of stock and talk to the managers of the warehouse. Being insistent and persistent as she is, she decided to fly there in the evening and meet with the managers after 6pm. From the airport, she took a cab to go to the warehouse which was in the middle of nowhere. She started asking some questions to the cab driver who naturally could not speak as good English as she has expected. Therefore, being as she is, she began yelling at the driver and doing her usual kicking of the back chair antics. The driver, getting confused and scared of her put the car to a halt in the middle of the highway and Mrs. P not looking before going down, decides to jump out of the cab. Unfortunately, there was a truck coming on and before she knew it, she was hit by the speeding truck. Suddenly, the almighty Mrs. P was dead. The frantic cab driver, left her dead in the middle of the street and the younger Ms. P learned the news of her death a couple of days after. She was flown to HK and then the U.S. and Ms. P is now the one managing the Toy business.

I never imagined this would happen to Mrs. P. No matter how bad and mean she was I never wished her death but I guess for some people this was a story of Karma....

Posted by duke at 7/05/2005 06:59:00 PM

9 Comments:

Teacher Sol said...: I believe in Karma. I was reminded again of my "Darkest Days" with your story...(cheers to us the emotional cancerians!)...

Tanan kami ni Reiner, I was pregnant & he was disowned by his family. We found an undersized, unventilated, filthy room at the basement of a huge mansion at Camaro Street Fairview Quezon City. It was the residence of a certain Judge Lazaro, which was converted to a boarding house after he departed. There was a swimming pool, a cool garden, full-sized dining and living room. We thought they were perfect though our room was really pathetic! This was our “first home” as a couple.

The daughter's landlady was sooo mean to the tenants, evicting them once they didn't pay on time. "Feeling mayaman", when she didn't like the food served to her in her room she would topple the tray and yell at the maids. Parang sa pelikula lang namin nakikita ang ganyan.

So, after five months that we couldn't stand her anymore, we transferred to a neighboring boarding house. We had the privacy of our own space this time.

But before we left, I swore & told my husband that we were going to come back more successful than they are. Galit na galit ako sa kanya.

Never heard from them. After four years, before we left for the US, we went back and saw the place in ruins. Nasunog pala ang boarding house.

Ah, bad karma.; 7/05/2005 08:40:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Being a Catholic conflicts with my being a Pinoy who is superstitious. I too, believe in karma. After all, isn't it just a reflection of the Golden Rule? Something that we always should keep in mind and let it guide how we live our lives. Good things happen to good people.; 7/06/2005 06:54:00 PM
duke said...: teacher sol:
wow! karma nga yon.. parang pam pelikula ang story!

patrice:
ako din..I believe that good things happen to good people :); 7/06/2005 07:09:00 PM
duke said...: hi isabela...salamat sa comment! well karam I guess can be in different levels.Hindi rin ako expert on karma pero from this story the one that seemed to be 'justifiable' was her death dahil sa sobrang sama nya... parang yung biro lagi na phrase na 'sana kunin na sha ni Lord'kaso nagkatotoo ;); 7/07/2005 07:10:00 PM
Analyse said...: that was a horrible death, and i guess her attitude killed her. kung di ba naman sya ganun ka impulsive at kataray, she could have controlled herself and check the security (which is logical) before moving out of the car...oh well, bless her soul, hope Ms P learned her lesson a bit from that experience...

o, pakabait ka dyan ha..; 7/07/2005 07:37:00 PM
duke said...: analyse..ako pa.. super bait ko dito ;) oo nga attitude kills ;); 7/07/2005 07:48:00 PM
Noemi said...: Hello!Ms. Duke...ni-link den po kita sa site ko...Thank you for dropping by and for linking me...:)...on karma naman..well sabi nga nila, what goes around comes around...sabi nga ni Depak Chopra(The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success)..every action generates a force of energy that returns to us in like kind...what we sow is what we reap. And when we choose actions that bring happiness and success to others, the fruit of our karma is happiness and success....yon lang po!Have a nice day:); 7/09/2005 09:12:00 AM
duke said...: hi noemi... oo nga parang kanta ni alicia keys din on karma... i guessthe fruit of GOOD karma is happiness and success ;); 7/09/2005 06:49:00 PM
undiscussablerealms said...: wow! i love your site. was blog-hopping and came across it.

you are living my dream. always wanted to live in turkey. please write lots about turkey. i can't get enough of it. :)

also, i totally believe in karma. and although good and bad things can be random, bad people will always get their just desserts. and karma usually strikes when unaware that's why the occurence of it shocks!

thanks for keeping this blog. more turkey stories, please. :); 8/07/2005 04:18:00 AM

Confessions of an Expat's Wife

July 05, 2005

A True Story of Karma

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