A Waiting Game

I have been thinking that you can tell a lot about a culture by looking at the way people queue (or don’t as the case may be!). I was in the bank today to take out some of my penultimate scholarship instalment, and everyone waiting to be served was standing in little groups around each of the tellers. Every now and then someone else would walk in and join one of these ‘clusters’ each vying for the clerk’s attention. I used to think this was rudeness, but I have realised it is not. Who am I to say what works best, and what doesn’t? If you go to the bank in the UK or in Pakistan, and come out in the same amount of time, having completed the work you came to do, then why change anything? To be honest I think some people where there simply to utilise the air-conditioning system, as the bank is one of the few places in Pakistan where you can guarantee it will be present.