Gratuity Quotes

YOU have no room to laugh, that's all. I'm not doing any worse with Boovish than you did with English.' Get off of the car,' J.Lo huffed. 'I am an English superstar.' Uh-uh. There's no comparison. 'Gratuity' in written Boovish has seventeen different bubbles that all have to be the right size and in the right place. 'J.Lo' in written English only has three letters, and you still spelled it 'M-smiley face-pound sign.

People are delighted to accept pensions and gratuities, for which they hire out their labour or their support or their services. But nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing. But if death threatens these same people, you will see them praying to their doctors; if they are in fear of capital punishment, you will see them prepared to spend their all to stay alive.

For that moment at least they seemed to give up external plans, theories, and codes, even the inescapable romantic curiosity about one another, to indulge in being simply and purely young, to share that sense of the world's affliction, that outgoing sorrow at the spectacle of Our Human Condition which anyone this age regards as reward or gratuity for having survived adolescence.

Also, if you bring up ten Cuban midnight sandwiches, with extra pickles, Mr. Sevastyan will tip you extravagantly. Please put that gratuity in with the total. Excellent. Thank you for your help!

The door refused to open. It said, “Five cents, please.” He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. “I’ll pay you tomorrow,” he told the door. Again he tried the knob. Again it remained locked tight. “What I pay you,” he informed it, “is in the nature of a gratuity; I don’t have to pay you.” “I think otherwise,” the door said. “Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt.” In his desk drawer he found the contract; since signing it he had found it necessary to refer to the document many times. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip. “You discover I’m right,” the door said. It sounded smug. From the drawer beside the sink Joe Chip got a stainless steel knife; with it he began systematically to unscrew the bolt assembly of his apt’s money-gulping door. “I’ll sue you,” the door said as the first screw fell out. Joe Chip said, “I’ve never been sued by a door. But I guess I can live through it.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government.

The female guard in R&D explained that they had no women's street clothes, so she gave me the smallest pair of men's jeans they had, a green polo shirt, a windbreaker, and a cheap pair of fake-suede lace-up shoes with thin plastic soles. They also provided me with what she called "a gratuity": $28.30. I was ready for the outside world.

When I was a concierge, I didn’t want a guest’s gratitude. I wanted gratuity. A thank you and a warm smile are always made warmer by a transfer of money.

It was an inside joke among my IIM batchmates that if you stayed in an organization long enough to earn gratuity, you were either unemployable elsewhere or you had mentally retired.

This is the path of prayer—contemplative prayer, that is, as distinct from simple prayers of supplication and thanksgiving—which is a specific discipline of thought, desire, and action, one that frees the mind from habitual prejudices and appetites, and allows it to dwell in the gratuity and glory of all things. As an old monk on Mount Athos once told me, contemplative prayer is the art of seeing reality as it truly is; and, if one has not yet acquired the ability to see God in all things, one should not imagine that one will be able to see God in himself.

A people who are intent on getting something-for-nothing from government cannot cavil over the infringement of their rights by that government; in fact, if the price demanded for the gratuities is the relinquishment of rights, they are not averse to paying it. There is evidence enough that this trade is often made, and that the government is able to enter into it because of its income-tax revenues.

She tried to make her eyes seem tender; she did not know why, for no reason, for pleasure, the pleasure of charity, of a little vanity, and also gratuity, the pleasure of carving your name into a tree trunk for a passerby whom you will never see, the pleasure of throwing a bottle into the ocean.

Now, legal plunder may be exercised in an infinite multitude of ways. Hence come an infinite multitude of plans for organization; tariffs, protection, perquisites, gratuities, encouragements, progressive taxation, free public education, right to work, right to profit, right to wages, right to assistance, right to instruments of labor, gratuity of credit, etc., etc. And it is all these plans, taken as a whole, with what they have in common, legal plunder, that takes the name of socialism.

The body receives gratuity. The world gives graciously, disinterestedly, asking for nothing back, expecting nothing in return; it has no scales, no balance sheet. Our senses cede nothing in return for it, can give nothing back to the source of given beauties. What could the eye give back to the sun, or the palate to the vines of Yquem?

Contrary to popular opinion, we are all a vast brotherhood of human beings whose very survival hinges not on what we keep, but on what we give. And it is in the giving that we not only survive to live another day, but we thrive to celebrate another day.

I was a bellman once. A bellman of love. The hospitality industry taught me a lot about romance, and proper gratuity etiquette.

We tend to think of happiness (and by happiness I also mean health or overall well-being)as a gift, and sometimes it is, a pure gratuity. But most of the time it comes about because you've done the work, prepared the ground to allow it in or tended it carefully once it has arrived. You have to practice happiness the way you practice the piano, commit to it the way you commit to going to the gym.

Mi interessano solo gli scrittori che hanno uno stile; se non hanno uno stile, non mi interessano. Ed è raro, lo stile, è raro. Ma le storie, ne è piena la strada: tutto è pieno di storie, ne sono pieni i commissariati, pieni i tribunali, piena la vostra vita. Tutti hanno una storia, mille storie. [...] Uno stile? Ah! Sì, signore. Ce ne sono uno, due, tre per generazione. Ci sono migliaia di scrittori, ma sono dei poveri pasticcioni… borbottano nelle loro frasi, ripetono quello che qualcun altro ha già detto. Scelgono una storia, una buona storia, e poi la raccontano. Per me questo non è per nulla interessante. Ho smesso di essere uno scrittore, nevvero, per diventare un cronista. Ho messo la mia pelle in gioco, perché, non dimenticate una cosa, la grande ispiratrice, è la morte. Se non mettete la vostra pelle sul tavolo, non avete nulla. Uno deve pagare! Quello che è fatto senza pagare, non conta nulla, vale meno del nulla. Allora, avete scrittori gratuiti. Al giorno d’oggi, ci sono solo scrittori gratuiti. E quello che è gratuito, puzza di gratuito.

legal plunder may be exercised in an infinite multitude of ways. Hence come an infinite multitude of plans for organization; tariffs, protection, perquisites, gratuities, encouragements, progressive taxation, free public education, right to work, right to profit, right to wages, right to assistance, right to instruments of labor, gratuity of credit, etc., etc. And it is all these plans, taken as a whole, with what they have in common, legal plunder, that takes the name of socialism.

e never fall twice into the same abyss. But we always fall the same way, in a mixture of ridicule and dread. We so desperately want not to fall that we grapple for a handhold, screaming. With their heels they crush our fingers, with their beaks they smash our teeth and peck out our eyes. The abyss is bordered by tall mansions. And there stands History, a reasonable goddess, a frozen statue in the middle of the town square. Dried bunches of peonies are her annual tribute; her daily gratuity, bread crumbs for the birds.

The goodness of God fills all the gaps of the universe, without discrimination or preference. God is the gratuity of absolutely everything. The space in between everything is not space at all but Spirit. God is the “goodness glue” that holds the dark and light of things together, the free energy that carries all death across the Great Divide and transmutes it into Life. When we say that Christ “paid the debt once and for all,” it simply means that God's job is to make up for all deficiencies in the universe. What else would God do? Basically, grace is God's first name, and probably last too. Grace is what God does to keep all things he has made in love and alive—forever. Grace is God's official job description. Grace is not something God gives; grace is who God is. If we are to believe the primary witnesses, an unexplainable goodness is at work in the universe.

For that moment at least they seemed to give up external plans, theories, and codes, even the inescapable romantic curiosity about one another, to indulge in being simply and purely young, to share that sense of the world’s affliction, that outgoing sorrow at the spectacle of Our Human Condition which anyone this age regards as reward or gratuity for having survived adolescence. For them the music was sweet and painful, the strolling chains of tourists like a Dance of Death. They stood on the curb, gazing at one another, jostled against by hawkers and sightseers, lost as much perhaps in that bond of youth as in the depths of the eyes each contemplated.

Someone once told him, someone erased from his memory, that many people lead hard lives, lonely and unappreciated, and that an unexpected, large gratuity makes them feel special and helps them to hold fast to a belief in the existence of kindness and meaning in a world that seems to be growing ever more barbarous and meaningless year by year.

It was all a monstrous payment for courageous fiction, a gratuity in return for the one reality of human life--illusion. We gave them a feeling of hope and profit; we sent a tidal wave of water and confidence into their stranded affairs...Civilization is possible only through confidence, so that we can bank our money and go unarmed about the streets.

People are delighted to accept pensions and gratuities, for which they hire out their labour or their support or their services. But nobody works out the value of time: men use it lavishly as if it cost nothing. But if death threatens these same people, you will see them praying to their doctors; if they are in fear of capital punishment, you will see them prepared to spend their all to stay alive. So inconsistent are they in their feelings. But if each of us could have the tally of his future years set before him, as we can of our past years, how alarmed would be those who saw only a few years ahead, and how carefully would they use them! And yet it is easy to organize an amount, however small, which is assured; we have to be more careful in preserving what will cease at an unknown point.

when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government.

The mystery of presence is that encounter wherein the self-disclosure of one evokes a deeper life in the other. There is nothing you need to “think” or understand to be present; it is all about giving and receiving right now, and it is not done in the mind. It is actually a transference and sharing of Being, and will be experienced as grace, gratuity and inner-groundedness. Thus there is always a great leap of inner authenticity that is associated with true mutual presence, because in being received graciously, we are able to receive ourselves at an ever-deeper level yet recognize that we are both part of something Greater itself. It gives one great happiness and deep joy. We really are socially contagious human beings, but we settle for “human doings.” It is at the being level that life is most vitally transferred.

Bill and Hillary started with nothing. Bill is now the wealthiest ex-president in the United States. Might it be because Hillary greased the skids after which Bill accepted massive gratuities? Many think we may never know because she refuses to give up her email server. How do you go from dead broke to filthy rich? Why would you not recuse yourself as Secretary of State when there is a conflict of interest or even the appearance of one?

E cos’è che impararono gli allievi di Amalfitano? Impararono a recitare a voce alta. Mandarono a memoria le due o tre poesie che più amavano per ricordarle e recitarle nei momenti opportuni: funerali, nozze, solitudini. Capirono che un libro era un labirinto e un deserto. Che la cosa più importante del mondo era leggere e viaggiare, forse la stessa cosa, senza fermarsi mai. Che una volta letti gli scrittori uscivano dall’anima delle pietre, che era dove vivevano da morti, e si stabilivano nell’anima dei lettori come in una prigione morbida, ma che poi questa prigione si allargava o scoppiava. Che ogni sistema di scrittura è un tradimento. Che la vera poesia vive tra l’abisso e la sventura e che vicino a casa sua passa la strada maestra dei gesti gratuiti, dell’eleganza degli occhi e della sorte di Marcabruno. Che il principale insegnamento della letteratura era il coraggio, un coraggio strano, come un pozzo di pietra in mezzo a un paesaggio lacustre, un coraggio simile a un vortice e a uno specchio. Che leggere non era più comodo che scrivere. Che leggendo s’imparava a dubitare e a ricordare. Che la memoria era l’amore.

This paradigm of the gift places us in the posture of recipients. We receive existence, we receive meaning, and we receive love. To be sure we are creative recipients, as we shall see in the chapters that follow, and receiving the gift of the universe certainly does not make us passive. But the fact remains that we are recipients nonetheless. The one thing we should not do with a gift is pretend we bought or made it ourselves. The giver is usually thanked, so our fundamental orientation to existence in the paradigm of the figure of gratuity is one of praise and thanksgiving.

I believed that one person owes a duty to another with no payment for it in return. I believed that it was my duty to love a woman who gave me nothing, who betrayed everything I lived for, who demanded her happiness at the price of mine. I believed that love is some static gift which, once granted, need no longer be deserved—just as they believe that wealth is a static possession which can be seized and held without further effort. I believed that love is a gratuity, not a reward to be earned just as they believe it is their right to demand an unearned wealth. And just as they believe that their need is a claim on my energy, so I believed that her unhappiness was a claim on my life. For the sake of pity, not justice, I

L'innalzamento del minimo si opera con la graduale estensione del campo dei servizi pubblici gratuiti. L'ente pubblico dovrà, fra l'altro, gradualmente provvedere a fornire ai ragazzi istruzione elementare, refezione scolastica, vestiti e calzature convenienti, libri e quaderni ed ai giovani volenterosi, i quali diano prova di una bastevole attitudine allo studio, la possibilità di frequentare scuole medie ed università a loro scelta senza spesa o con quella sola spesa la quale possa essere sostenuta dal giovane disposto a lavorare senza nocumento degli studi; e le scuole dovranno essere varie e adatte, per numero e per attrezzatura, alle occupazioni diverse manuali od intellettuali ai quali i giovani si sentiranno chiamati.

The rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government.

With this single maneuver, Vincent engaged several important principles of influence. First, even those who did not take his suggestions felt Vincent had done them a favor by offering valuable information to help them order. Everyone felt grateful, and consequently, the rule of of reciprocation worked in his favor when it came time to decide on his gratuity. Besides hiking up the percentage of his tip, Vincent’s ploy also placed him in a position to increase the size of the party’s order. It established him as an authority on the current stores of the house: he clearly knew what was and wasn’t good that night. Moreover—and here is where seeming to argue against his own interests comes in—it proved him to be a trustworthy informant because he recommended dishes slightly less expensive than the one originally ordered. Rather than having appeared to try to line his own pockets, he seemed to have the customers’ best interests at heart.

Io non credo che l’uomo sia un’opera d’arte, e vuole sapere perché? Perché l’arte è un prodotto dell’uomo, il segno tangibile della sua grandezza, certo, ma anche della sua fragilità. Arte è solitudine, il tentativo di fermare qualcosa di vero e la speranza che qualcuno si fermi a guardarlo. Arte è prendere il proprio dolore, la propria disperazione, e provare a convertirli in bellezza, trovare al male un senso e una posizione; una giustificazione. Arte è comprendere di essere di passaggio, gratuiti, superflui, e non saperlo o volerlo accettare. Arte è non farsi bastare questo mondo ed essere così arroganti da voler creare altra esistenza, e respirare quello e vivere di quello. Arte è una parola: la dicono i critici con gli occhi dietro gli occhiali e un corpo plastinato davanti e la fanno diventare realtà. Potrebbero dirlo adesso, registrare queste mie frasi e dire accorrete, questa è arte, venite a sentire, ma il mio discorso resterebbe solo un mucchio di pensieri storti in cerca di un orecchio capace di ascoltare.

Such gratuity necessarily revolutionizes the ordinary human way of looking at talent, effort, and achievement. Henceforth I do strain, I do intend, and I do utilize my potential, but solely by virtue of Another. What can my effort to cultivate the land avail me if I have neither seed nor soil? The ground, the possibility, the impulse, the sense—all of these are given to me absolutely free and undeserved. Jesus does not specify what the “free gift” precisely is which the apostles have received, and the word δωϱεὰν may also be read adverbially to mean “gratis”, “free of charge”, so that the alternate translation would be: “You received without cost; give without charge.” The very indetermination of the object, however, here makes the formulation even more absolute. Although in context the specific “gift” meant is probably the divine authority to heal and generally to act in Jesus’ stead, surely it also refers to the first call to discipleship by Jesus, to the invitation to and privilege of following him and sharing his life, and to this present call to special apostleship as well. In other words, the “gift” given by God free of charge is the Christian’s whole life; Christ Jesus himself. The gratuitousness with which God gives his Son to mankind, furthermore, imposes an inviolable pattern of transitiveness. The one who receives must give the gift further as freely as he has received it. As a result of receiving from God, one must give like God. God, then, imparts not only the gift itself but the very manner of the giving. This gift communicates its qualities to its recipient: having such a gift, I myself must become gift. The gift of God’s life—Jesus—does not pass through me like water through a pipe, leaving me unaffected. It descends upon me like fire on a sacrifice, roasting the meat and making it edible for God’s hungry.

...if one thinks about the relationship between nature and grace in terms of natural human desires in an Aristotelian sense and what would fulfill them, human states become the focus for discussion in ways that hamstring efforts to show the gratuity of grace.

I pick up “This is Your Policeman” Public Information Bulletin No. 5. Under “His Code of Ethics” it says, “I will enforce the law … never employing unnecessary force or violence and never accepting gratuities.” I guess the cops at the Tuesday bust must have had this in mind, because I didn’t see any of them taking tips.

Viaggi gratis per ex deputati Partiti divisi sull’abolizione Carlo Bertini | 382 parole «Campa cavallo che il rimborso cresce», sfotte il leghista Davide Caparini, che su twitter si scaglia contro quella che il grillino Riccardo Fraccaro bolla come la «Casta crociere». La Camera spende ogni anno quasi un milione di euro per far viaggiare gratis gli ex onorevoli e da mesi si sta valutando un taglio. Ma non netto, come molti chiedono: la novità è che gli ex avranno un plafond di 900 euro, non a fondo perduto ma a fronte di un rimborso dei biglietti. Solo per la tratta fino a Roma. E non a vita, ma per dieci anni, che dalla prossima legislatura caleranno a cinque. Perché non viene abolito del tutto? Il questore del Pd, Paolo Fontanelli, spiega che questi benefit ora vengono ridotti, lasciando che venga riconosciuto agli ex deputati che ancora fanno politica di poter ancora dare un contributo, senza sposare la tesi che le loro esperienze non servono più a nulla. «Noi siamo per linea di un graduale riduzione, per non demonizzare chi ha fatto politica». Lo sfogo dei due deputati di Lega e M5S uniti nella battaglia di abolire tout court il beneficio è dovuto all’ennesimo rinvio, deciso la scorsa settimana, di una grana che per i vertici di Montecitorio è un nodo irto di spine. Non c’è infatti accordo tra i partiti per far cessare questa prassi che con i tempi che corrono è considerata a dir poco anacronistica. «In ufficio di presidenza (l’organo che gestisce e organizza la Camera) con i pentastellati abbiamo proposto l’abolizione dei viaggi gratuiti per gli ex deputati, ma la votazione è stata rinviata (abbiamo iniziato a parlarne il 28 ottobre scorso)», attacca Caparini. E Fraccaro non è da meno, perché «spendere ogni anno 900 mila euro per il rimborso dei viaggi degli ex deputati è uno scandalo che grida vendetta. Sono moltissime le voci di bilancio da tagliare dei costi della politica. A breve si svolgerà una nuova riunione e chiediamo alla Boldrini, ai questori e a tutti i partiti di accogliere la nostra proposta per cancellare subito i rimborsi viaggi agli ex deputati, un privilegio assurdo». Tra due settimane la sentenza, la folta truppa degli ex parlamentari attende con ansia il verdetto.

My birth certificate says “Gratuity Tucci,” but Mom’s called me Turtlebear ever since she learned that “gratuity” didn’t mean what she thought it did. My friends call me Tip. I

Once I was in a bicycle accident, and I lay in the street for a long time afterward. People surrounded me and wouldn’t let me stand up until the paramedics arrived. When they did, they asked if I knew who the president was, and what state I lived in, and how much was three times seven. When I answered everything correctly they seemed pleased, so they asked my name and I said “Gratuity,” and then they wouldn’t let me up until I told them it was “Janet.” Anyway,

Our experiences are our lessons. Today is our gratuity, The future are our rationale. Onze ervaringen zijn onze lessen. Vandaag is onze fooi. De toekomst is onze beweegredenen.

In the experience of the beautiful, one is apprised with a unique poignancy of both the ecstatic structure of consciousness and the gratuity of being. Hence the ancient conviction that the love of beauty is, by its nature, a rational yearning for the transcendent.

Spanish, Sobremesasorpresa This word describes the period of time after a meal when you have amiable food-induced conversations with the Spaniards you have shared the meal with and just when you think you've made friends for life they present you with a bill that says, 'Propina no incluido' ('Gratuity not included').

Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By “they” I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness. —Thomas Merton, from Raids on the Unspeakable

A.D.D. MOMENT My favorite line is “For your convenience, an 18 percent gratuity has been added to your check.” My convenience? Is that really convenient for me? That’s about as insincere as “Your call is very important to us.

If God is love, then in some sense the quality of free gift, of gratuity, must be intrinsic to every human action.

Craig Says…”The best formula for figuring out a driver gratuity when hiring a coach on two one way transfers would be $1-2 per person in each direction.

it seems clear to me that the special delight experienced in the encounter with beauty is an immediate sense of the utterly unnecessary thereness, so to speak, of a thing, the simple gratuity with which it shows itself, or (better) gives itself.

Ci ammiravano perché avevamo la schiena forte e le mani agili. Per la nostra resistenza. Per la nostra disciplina. Per il nostro carattere docile. Per la nostra insolita capacità di sopportare il caldo, che nelle giornate estive poteva sfiorare i cinquanta gradi nei campi di meloni di Brawley. Dicevano che la bassa statura ci rendeva perfetti per un lavoro che imponeva di stare sempre chini a terra. Dovunque ci mettessero, li facevamo contenti.

Quella notte i nostri nuovi mariti ci presero in fretta. Ci presero con calma. Ci presero dolcemente, ma con decisione, e senza dire una parola. Sicuri che fossimo le vergini promesse dai sensali, ci presero con squisita premura. [...] Ci presero con bramosia, con cupidigia, come se avessero aspettato di prenderci per mille anni più uno. Ci presero anche se avevamo ancora il mal di mare e il terreno non aveva smesso di oscillarci sotto i piedi. Ci presero con violenza, usando i pugni quando cercavamo di resistere. Ci presero anche se li mordevamo. Ci presero anche se li picchiavamo. Ci presero anche se li insultavamo e gridavamo aiuto. [...] Ci presero con frenesia, sopra lenzuola macchiate di giallo. Ci presero facilmente, e senza troppe cerimonie, perché alcune di noi erano già state prese molte volte. [...] Ci presero pensando ad un'altra donna - lo capimmo dal loro sguardo perso in lontananza - e poi ci maledissero quando non trovarono il nostro sangue sulle lenzuola.

Just as all life begins with the gratuity of the unnecessary creation, all new life begins with the gratuity of Christ’s voluntary self-giving on the cross. Both creation and new creation are justified not by necessity but by love: nowhere in the Bible does it say that God so calculated profit and loss that he gave his only Son. The cross is not adequately explained by all that came before it, just as the creation of the universe is not adequately explained by all that comes after it. Both events are grounded in God’s freely given love.

Experiencing radical grace is like living in another world. It’s not a world in which I labor to get God to notice me and like me. It’s not a world in which I strive for spiritual success. It’s not a cosmic game of crime and punishment. Unfortunately, a large percentage of the world’s religions do teach that, if usually indirectly. Religious people are afraid of gratuity. Instead, we want God for the sake of social order, and we want religion for the sake of social controls.

What transforms the merely accomplished into the revelatory is this invisible nimbus of utter gratuity.

many people lead hard lives, lonely and unappreciated, and that an unexpected, large gratuity makes them feel special and helps them to hold fast to a belief in the existence of kindness and meaning in a world that seems to be growing ever more barbarous and meaningless year by year.

The most polished technique can impress us, even momentarily enchant us, but it cannot truly awaken anything in us if the work itself fails to recommend and offer itself, however mysteriously, as something at once utterly inevitable in its fittingness and yet utterly needless in its existence. If this seems somewhat vague, I am sorry for that. But it seems clear to me that the special delight provided by a genuine encounter with beauty is in great part an irreducible sense of the sheer, needless event of the beautiful in every particular, unanticipated instance of its disclosure—the gratuity with which it manifests itself, or gives itself.

Baba said wood carried testimonies to people’s lineage, the scent of generations seeping into it and gaining immortality. Fits of silence, he called those moments of withdrawal, the gratuities of the refugees, especially in old age.

Mammachi had a separate entrance built for Chacko’s room, which was at the eastern end of the house, so that the objects of his “Needs” wouldn’t have to go traipsing through the house. She secretly slipped them money to keep them happy. They took it because they needed it. They had young children and old parents. Or husbands who spent all their earnings in toddy bars. The arrangement suited Mammachi, because in her mind, a fee clarified things. Disjuncted sex from love. Needs from Feelings. Margaret Kochamma, however, was a different kettle of fish altogether. Since she had no means of finding out (though she did once try to get Kochu Maria to examine the bedsheets for stains), Mammachi could only hope that Margaret Kochamma was not intending to resume her sexual relationship with Chacko. While Margaret Kochamma was in Ayemenem, Mammachi managed her unmanageable feelings by slipping money into the pockets of the dresses that Margaret Kochamma left in the laundry bin. Margaret Kochamma never returned the money simply because she never found it. Her pockets were emptied as a matter of routine by Aniyan the dhobi. Mammachi knew this, but preferred to construe Margaret Kochamma’s silence as a tacit acceptance of payment for the favors Mammachi imagined she bestowed on her son. So Mammachi had the satisfaction of regarding Margaret Kochamma as just another whore, Aniyan the dhobi was happy with his daily gratuity, and of course Margaret Kochamma remained blissfully unaware of the whole arrangement. (161)

What’s the difference between a bribe and a gratuity? Same two parties, same special service, same discreet transfer of cash. But the timing shifts, and timing is everything.

Glawen alighted, removed his luggage from the bin while Maxen sat drumming his fingers on the wheel. Glawen paid the standard fee, which Maxen accepted with raised eyebrows. “And the gratuity?” Glawen slowly turned to stare into the driver’s compartment. “Did you help me load my luggage?” “No, but -” “Did you help me unload it?” “By the same token -” “Did you not tell me that I was inbred and eccentric, and probably weak-minded?” “That was a joke.” “Now can you guess the location of your gratuity?” “Yes. Nowhere.” “Quite right.” “Hoity-toity!” murmured Maxen, and drove quickly away, elbows stylishly high.