Looking down....only lowers the Looker

When I returned to the guest house this evening, I said hello to the security guard on duty, as I always do. He smiled and said that I was the only one who stops and talks to the guards. Everyone else looks away and act as if these people do not exist, except when there is a crisis and a guard is needed. I asked the guard why people behave that way, a rhetorical question, of course. He replied that the residents think that they are higher than the guards and look down upon them. A rather sad look at affairs. One more reason India has a long way to go before it becomes moral.