I was a very lazy person. Commuting is one thing I hate to the
core of my being even today. But now I am a better person, a person who doesn't
make faces or feel tired at just the concept of travelling as I used to
earlier, long ago.
The story goes
like this. I had to commute to work in another city. I lived in a small town
and trains were not as frequent as you would want them to be. If you missed a
train the next one would be after 3-5 hours. I had to travel for 4 hours in a
local train, full of people, courtesy Indian population just to reach another
destination and after eight hours of a hectic day I had to come back via the
same route with greater population of daily commuters mingled with the happy
and gay travelers. Since these trains were rare between our place and the next
city they were always crowded and even today i wonder "where do so many
people go every day?". Well the reality is the idea of the percentage
growth in Indian population can simply be estimated by estimating it's
population. Every year out of the total number of couples that get married,
fifty percent bear children and the cycle continues each year, making the
probability of you getting a seat while commuting slimmer each day. It’s not
the travel but this suffocation while travelling that makes one tired.
Being a woman that
wasn't all. Once we get back we also have to cook, fold the clothes that the
made had washed, arrange the utensils, check the kid's homework. A mother works
as much to run a family as does a prime minister to run the entire nation.
However we are not acknowledged and so we crib like I used to, until the day
she met me. Clad in a simple white saree, no accessories, her ling her plated
into a neat pony tail and was unruffled by entire days work and travel. Her
face and gait look tired as she clutched the hanger that kept her glued to the
little space she had found for herself in a tightly packed compartment. She
must be in her sixties but her smiled like that of a teenager, her spirit too.
She smilingly gave way to vendors whose children ate better the day there were
more commuters on the train, whom we would just scold angrily. Her wisdom
better than ours, would make space for them miraculously from a sea of packed
bodies, each ready to kill another by squeezing for some extra space.
I was having a
good day as I was sitting. I luckily got one as I managed to climb in first.
One of those rare days where I won't be so exhausted I thought. But this woman
made me think what she ate. As she kept standing and was older I offered her my
seat which she took only after initial resistance as to me it was no less than
Gollum's ring "my precious" or may be she saw the battle I fought
with a small noise within me, the cry baby that said I was tired too. Anyways
the principles always won and hence I gave it to her. She sat, drank some water
and started chatting with me. Out of curiosity I asked her how was she so
alive? She just smiled. I think she didn't want to share and so I left at that.
Then we changed the topic to what we did. She was a social worker. She
administered different groups for an NGO. Her work included teaching
prostitutes about using contraceptive measures, helping them rehabilitate,
putting street children in homes, educating slum children, helping women who
have been victims of physical abuse and so on. In essence she nurtured the
discarded and helped them stand up again. She then said her husband passed away
an year after her marriage, her in laws blamed it on her and her brother had
his own family. She wanted a life of respected and so she started living in a
home for people like her and now she supports all of them, whom the society
discards for no fault of theirs.
She then just said
one thing "When you see life going away so closely each day, in a child on
the footpath taking drugs, in a prostitute dying of AIDS she contracts or a
woman being burnt alive for dowry, you celebrate every breath". I was
shaken into reality and realized what I complained about was so trivial. It was
time for her to get down and while leaving she just turned back and gave me a
smile. The smile that meant so much and to me it is the world’s most purest and
beautiful smile.
When I am sad for
trivial matters, I think about people with greater problems and I feel mine are
just plastic. Sometimes sharing a roof with a stranger can give you lessons for
life.
https://housing.com/lookup helps you find a friend in a place when you are new and may be
they will be your friend , philosopher and guide for life. #LookUp their site
today.
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