Abul Mia spent his entire life in the village. He was accustomed to the village's fresh market, muddy roads, and the crowd of familiar faces. But his only son, Simon, now works a great job in Dhaka city. At his son's insistence, Abul Mia and his wife, Jamila Khatun, came to visit Dhaka for the first time.Seeing the tall buildings and the speeding cars in the city, Abul Mia's eyes widened. However, he received the biggest shock three days later when Simon said, "Dad, today we're going to a supermarket near the house to do the monthly shopping."
Abul Mia thought, shopping means mud, chaos, and haggling. But upon entering the supermarket, he was astonished! There was wonderful lighting, air conditioning, and the floor was so shiny that he could see his own reflection. People were calmly pushing trolleys and buying items.Simon handed a large trolley to his mother and said, "Mom, you take spices and rice from these rows over here. I'm going to get fish and meat from the fridge over there."
Abul Mia took on the responsibility of pushing the trolley. Jamila Khatun was looking at one item after another and placing them in the trolley. After going a little further, Jamila Khatun said, "Yes, Simon's father, we forgot to get pure mustard oil for cooking. Can you check where it is?"Abul Mia thought, this isn't such a difficult task! He left Jamila Khatun standing in one place and set out in search of the oil. But the problem was that there were thousands of shelves and hundreds of aisles in this store. He accidentally walked into the cosmetics and toiletries aisle. The scent of shampoo, soap, lotion, and perfume surrounded him.
He was checking each shelf one by one, but there were no bottles of oil anywhere. After searching for a while and getting tired, a young employee in a red uniform walked by. Abul Mia called out to him, "Hey, can you help me? Where can I find cooking mustard oil?"The employee was busy with another task and quickly pointed to another aisle, saying in English, "It's in the other aisle, uncle." Abul Mia didn't know English well. He understood that 'other' meant different, but he didn't know the meaning of the word 'aisle'. As a village man, the word 'aisle' reminded him of a dirt path or boundary in a field. He thought to himself, "Where did the dirt aisle come from in the city store? And what does 'other aisle' mean, a place for storing ginger?"He assumed that the young man had directed him to where ginger and garlic were sold. Abul Mia searched and ended up in the section with fresh vegetables and ginger and garlic. But there were no bottles of oil there, just onions, potatoes, and ginger!
Now Abul Mia was quite annoyed. He thought, "It seems the people in the city don't understand the difference between ginger and oil!" Grumbling in anger, he returned to the previous spot. There he found a gentleman in a suit and tie selecting coffee. Abul Mia approached him and said, "Sir, one of your store employees misled me. I asked about oil, and he sent me to the ginger!"
The gentleman laughed and politely asked, "Uncle, what exactly did he say to you?" Abul Mia replied, "He said something like 'aida aisle'. I saw the ginger, but there's no oil!"The gentleman laughed loudly this time. Then, placing a hand on Abul Mia's shoulder, he gently explained, "Uncle, you misunderstood. He didn't say 'ginger.' He said 'other aisle.' In English, 'aisle' is spelled 'A-I-S-L-E', but it's pronounced 'ail.' It means the walkway between the big shelves. He asked you to go to the adjacent walkway."
Abul Mia listened with his mouth agape. He smacked his forehead and laughed, "Oh my God! I thought it was the path for cultivating ginger and garlic! And in the city store, they call the walking path an aisle!"The gentleman laughed and took Abul Mia along to the adjacent aisle. There, rows of oil bottles were lined up neatly. Abul Mia happily picked up a bottle of oil and returned to Simon and Jamila Khatun. On the way home, Abul Mia said to Simon, "Listen, Simon, I learned a big lesson today. In our village fields, there are dirt aisles that separate the land. And in the city store, they have English aisles that guide people on walking paths. From now on, I also learned—It's in the other aisle!"
Simon and Jamila Khatun were laughing uncontrollably at Abul Mia's 'aisle' mystery.
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