A Strange Kindness !

Being a daily commuter to my job place makes me feel good at times. It reminds me that am a part of something active and that I belong somewhere. I feel I have a face and an identity, a common lame one though.

I waited patiently by the road for a shared rickshaw to take me to work with a relaxed mind taking pleasure in the arriving weekend. I am never the same person on a Friday. Everyone aware of my existence knows that. And during such waits, a cab is always a wonderful welcome. Just that you have struggle for your space at the backseat sharing it with three other. And the case worsens if those three seat partners hate a deo-spray and a bath. Not to forget the scorch rays outside and soaring temperatures with icings of humidity. And to my relief, a Maruti ALTO brakes in front of me. The person on the wheels didn’t look like a cab driver. But his eyes were questioning me of my destination. In a soft tone, I asked him and he happily allowed me in to the front seat beside him. A lady standing outside didn’t dare as he was hard to be taken as a driver and probably she wasn’t fine with unreasonable favors. The same was with me but I was sitting there because I was habituated to this world and its mannerisms and I was yet to see a favor done. I was convicted he had to be a driver. I tried looking at him and his appearance was professional with his full sleeves, formal trousers and the watch flagged my wrongness in taking him for a driver. He drove slowly through the twists and turns with the exact mentality of a person getting prepared for a day at a hectic job. I saw him applying the brakes bare footed. Ah….i was confused. Sitting there, I tried hard to cope with the dilemma of whether to offer him for money or not.

That’s when I felt for the first time how sick it is about the way we look down upon work. Here in India, we have never been able to appreciate the value of work. Small work almost always implicates cheapness and backwardness. We are born not to value the effect and beauty of a work. Drivers, workers, salesmen, fitters etc belong to a class which has been defined by lunatics and cynical as cheap and downtrodden and those lunatics and cynical are nothing but US. And we have always felt proud in happily ignoring the magnitude of help and role they play in our society. We need them, and they are cheap and we still need them. Here, if you ask someone if he is a driver, he doesn’t feel that is funny. He prefers feeling I was rude and that he should show me what arrogance or disgust means. Enquiring about someone being a driver shall always be taken as something horribly wrong with and can never ever be related to my curiosity or incapability to determine the fact.

Sitting there, I wished, it hadn’t been the same. How cool it would have been for me if only he didn’t mind me asking for money and being curious as to whether he truly was a driver or not. My options were two. Either I ask him for money and he refuses and he feels bad that he helped me or that I don’t offer him any and say a thanks and if he is really a driver, I let him ask for money. And I chose the latter one.
I was right to do that. As I reached, I smiled at him and said thanks the best way I could afford and got out to go my way. To my surprise he didn’t call me back. I was shocked at the favor. I am not a blonde or a good looking girl which is all you need here in this part of the world to turn someone in for a favor especially during office hours. Why he did so is something I can never understand. All I can do is to term him as a kind hearted soul. But he surely described kindness and compassion for the daily day-to-day woes one has to go through. He certainly made a difference in a big way by doing it in a simple way. And above all he did what all he could have to make my start of the day a very pleasant one. I forgot what kindness was and in a way it was inspiring. I received it and now I was feeling about spreading the same. It was my turn to hand it over and let someone else realize it and share it. I carried on towards my office with a wonder at heart and feeling good for this morning for I know it shall hardly ever come by again.

Thanks to you the unknown. The world here needs more like you. I shall try my best to add on to the list.