Collection of anecdotes that I’d like to keep documented
Hi. This is about strangers I met along the way. I don’t know their names or their backgrounds. I probably cannot recall their faces anymore, but sometimes, it’s not so much as the person but the way they make us feel.
Pretty girl
One evening, when I was walking back from work in my crumpled formals, I saw this girl staring at me as she approached me. When she came closer, she gave me a look with her enthusiastic eyes and said, “Achi dikh rahi ho tum, didi.” It wasn’t something I hear often from a stranger who’s 10, so my face instinctively lit up, but I couldn’t match her infectious smile. How could I or anyone? She has a smile that makes you want to fight anything that would make it falter. “Thank youuuu,” I replied and asked what exactly she liked in me. She did not answer but pointed to my tucked formal white shirt and shoes. 2-3 more exciting exchanges and I walked off. Not that I did not want to keep talking to her, but I could see the toll it took on her to keep carrying the heavy bucket of water around her waist whilst conversing with me.
I kept thinking of the way she looked at me. It’s how I look at things (or even people) I like. It’s that moment when adoration supersedes reality to the extent that our eyes can see no more than that one thing. That invoked a sense of gratitude for what I have in my life and made me feel sad for her. But I was more hopeful than pitiful because it made me think. It made me think about when I was around her age, how scared I was of the minor things which doesn’t really matter anymore. Most of us may not have imagined the dreams we see and the opinions we hold back then. I hope she also believes that many things are impossible for her. And I hope (more strongly) that her beliefs get busted, and plans get wrecked only to make her realize that the time will offer a better package than the one she planned for herself.
Cool aunty
A week later, during my failing attempts at booking a ride back home, one godsend (surprisingly, a woman driver) finally accepted it. I stayed dead silent for the first half of the ride like I generally on other days. But then, I wanted to talk to her that day. One thing that will stay with me from that conversation is her nonchalance to the fact that she has never seen a fellow woman bike taxi driver in her 5-year experience. She was so sure of what she was doing and why she had to do it that nothing else mattered.
That was intriguing for a teen’s mind, which often gets into a spiral of comparison whenever a “cool” bunch of people post a fun story or someone achieves something more than ordinary on LinkedIn. She said it without saying that being okay with our reality, despite how ugly it is, is always better than trying to fit into somebody else’s reality. We soon reached my home, and I got off the bike. While waiting there for my phone to make the payment, I said thanks to her and that she was an inspiration to many.
Sweet Anna
On another day, again back from work (this time for the last time), my best friend and I chose a cafe well within our broke-student budgets. One of us said on the way that we’d never been to Starbucks before, so we made an impromptu stop there. We both went in with our zero experience and chronic indecisiveness. We stood there looking up at the menu with its intimidating array of drinks which we had never heard of for quite some time until the Anna, who was waiting to take our order, understood our plight and pitched in, saying, “Do you want some help with the order? Is this your first time at Starbucks?” We let him name all the supposedly best stuff. After several deliberations with that Anna, we carefully chose the cheaper coffee (that too, only one for two people XD). He insisted we take the other coffee as it tasted better, but we awkwardly declined. He then told us that he billed us for what we ordered but gave us the other coffee. It was unexpectedly wholesome and made our day.
We were instantly at ease. While it was partly because we were done with the ordering part, which socially awkward people like us dread, the other reason was that a complete stranger made us feel a little less unwelcome in this foreign place. Maybe a decade from now, neither my friend nor I will be this excited or confused at Starbucks but I’m sure whenever we go there, we’ll not forget how this one Anna was a star who saved our bucks for the simplest reason of making our first experience better and wholesome.
So…
While all these experiences are unrelated, there is one commonality. All of them happened on my way back home from work. On typical days, while commuting, I think of everything that has happened that day and how there was so much done or so much to be done. But on rare days like the ones shared above, my day starts at that moment, being in awe with people who light up others’ by just being themselves. While the little girl reminded me that yesterday would be changed for good, and the aunty taught me that tomorrow is how you shape it, Anna showed me how to make the most of the moment you’re in for yourself and others.
Well, they might have made me realize all of that, or I might have seen it all myself. If it’s the former, I am glad there’s beauty around. If it’s the latter, I am glad I am capable of finding things beautiful.