Last evening, while passing through Charminar center, I saw a large crowd gathered in front of the shop of a general merchant. There was much uproar and high excitement. I proceeded towards the crowd and asked an old man what had happened. He could not tell me anything except to direct my attention to the merchant who was being held fast by few persons. Then I saw another young man held strongly by a few others. The latter tried every time to fly at the merchant but the men prevented him again and again. Both were using hot words and threatening furiously to kill each other. The spectators enjoyed the scene. Some of them were urging them to fight it out. But others were trying their best to pacify them.

The people were making a great deal of noise and in the confusion I could hardly make out the cause of the quarrel. At last a young man standing beside me told me the whole story. The cause of the quarrel was that the X young man had abused the merchant by calling him a cheat. This irritated the merchant who retaliated with a stream of abuse. Hot words were exchanged between the two. From hot words they came to blows. But soon a crowd gathered there and pulled them apart.

Now the quarrel was taking a serious turn. As generally happens in a quarrel, people were beginning to take sides. The Xs were inciting the young X, while the Ys were siding with the merchant. A venerable –looking old man appeared on the scene and smelling that this little quarrel might develop into a communal conflict calmed the feelings of both by apologizing to them for the rude behavior shown by the one to the other. This seemed to pacify them and put to shame those who were egging them on. In this way, the quarrel came to an end and the crowd melted away.