ABSTRACT
A young, fairly well dressed man entered the ladies compartment. I watched with curiosity waiting for him to be thrown off the train. Instead I was surprised to find some of the women hail him and on friendly terms. It turned out that Vicky sold cosmetics on the train regularly – he was popular and had a reputation for selling good products. There was another vendor in the compartment, a woman who at first appeared to be a rival cosmetic seller but who turned out to be his mother – in the event he was kicked out of the ladies compartment by the police she would gather up his cosmetics – apparently this happened often. The women laughed and joked with Vicky who had the charming manner indispensable to salespeople. As he smiled and bantered back and forth, I noticed that never once did he step over the invisible line between friendliness and familiarity. 1
