Religion at the Beef Shop

"The Christians are good employees. They work hard and they don't steal."

"The Buddhists will lie right to your face, but they wouldn't hurt a fly."

      Last Saturday Mr. Karma drove the Spaceo and picked up all the admin staff to take them to work.  Chanbari House was the last stop.  On the way up, the person who oversees the food orders reminded Mr. Karma that we needed to pick up the beef for the hostel kids that was ordered the day before.  So we all went along for the ride to the meat shop.
      Mr. Karma, the estate manager and most likely a buddhist by upbringing, pulled up to the roadside shop where sides and cuts of beef hung from meat hooks both in and outside the shop.  There were cars parked in front of the building, but that did not deter Mr. Karma.  He pulled in close, in between the cars and the shop, as if he were parking on the sidewalk.  He was so close to the building, in fact, that the roof rack collided with the tin awning coming out of the beef shop roof.  Undeterred by the scraping sound above, he backed up and pulled in even closer to the shop, stopped the car and got out to pick up the beef.
     Ms. Rekha, the business manager and a devout Hindu, was sitting in the back seat by the car door closest to the shop.  With the windows open from a lovely morning's crive along the upper road, the faint and acrid smell of beef curing in the sun filled the cab of the car.  We were waiting silently in the car (there was an unusual mix of high level admin and low level drivers that led to a somewhat uncomfortable silence) when Rekha let out a "Peuw!" under her breath.  Then she said, "He knows I can't look at it, why did he park here?"  Then silence for her to build her argument and the declaration, "He could have parked further down the road a bit.  There are spots I can see form here!" Making her case, she finally said, "He did this on purpose."
      A quick stop at the beef shop had turned into a religious affront.  This is Sikkim.