one of each kind

I haven't blogged in some time because a lot of things have been happening lately in my life. Some of them have turned my life the other way around, other not so significant and some have made me ponder over various trivial issues which we normally "busy" people tend to ignore.

"It was around 9:30p.m., on a Friday night. My dinner was done. it was my treat along with 7 other people for my entire project team. The food was great, so was the ambience but as usual people just did not want to be on time. So, whilst some of us finished licking our lips after the yummy carrot halwa, others just started arriving. And these others include even the senior most of people who are supposed to set examples to us beginners. Life is not just about being and doing well at your work place. it is about carrying that same spirit and ideas outside too. It is quite sad to see how the very guys who insist on punctuality and efficiency in some delivery to be done to some person sitting across the world just because he pays us in those little green notes, now do not care about keeping up time and making people wait as the stakes are apparently much lower. This is one form of hypocrisy I despise and i suppose one form which cannot be stopped. It has to come from within. It cannot be induced. Anyway, not deviating from my main theme, I had to excuse myself from the dinner party as it was quite late and I would miss my bus to my place if i didn't leave then. So, I said a final good-bye to all and left for the night. Waited at the bus stop for 15-20 minutes but there wasn't any sign of the bus. There was this other lady who had to go to her home which was quite close to my place. She was a little older than my mother and I felt maybe if we were off towards the same way, we might as well share a rickshaw, as it was getting pretty late. She agreed on the condition that i share the fare with her. OKKKKK...In the rickshaw I did offer her, more than 2-3 times, the choice of taking the auto to her place, and I said I would manage if she dropped me off somewhere close by to my place but she politely disagreed. The whole journey was quite eventless. She said a sentence or two about how she had to get home before 11 as her son would be home then and she had the house keys. That one concern of hers quite touched me. Here she was, this lady, who knew nothing of me and yet in these dangerous times where the headlines in most papers read about so-and-so person being abducted, abused..etc etc., accepting an offer to share a rickshaw with someone less than half her age, all for the fact that her son need not wait after he gets home. WOW. I was quite amazed by the unconditional love a mother can have for her child. Then, her stop came and she paid for more than her share. Asked me to keep the money in spite of my reluctance to do so. She then quickly jotted down her number on a piece of paper and asked me to call her around 11. That was quite surprising. I reached home at around 15 minutes to eleven. And then called her exactly at 11. She asked whether i reached home safely without any problems and said I could call up anytime I needed to talk. "

I do not know how much significance this incident may seem to have but it sort of gave me a new look to life. there I was surrounded by people who I work with day in and day out, not caring much for making me wait and showing that all I really was to them was a piece of resource to show to the client. And here was this lady, who knew nothing of me and yet she was concerned whether I reached home safely and invited me to call up anytime I wanted to talk... What a world we all live in!!!!
" Tell me, tell me, who are these around me with no mask
With no more, with no more intentions than those shown
In their words, in their covers.........."