For all the goodness and the good people that live here
A line is a line. There is no mundhufy-ing (barge ahead). Period. Even the person at the counter never ever encourages it. Once I saw a lady at counter saying “Sir, please step back, the lady behind you was the first to join the line!”
Stranger says bless you at public when you sneeze!
Every other person asks “Are you okay?” with a concerned voice when you look, walk and act like a zombie!
The space you get around even in a crowded local train. There is no pushing or pulling! Okay even those occasional pushes are gentle and comes with a hesitation! Its definitely not that “taken for granted” push that I am so used to!
Speaking of train, the way incoming passengers wait until the last one gets out even if the train stops only for 45 seconds in that station!
Mind everyone’s own business! No stares! No peeking! No eavesdropping (at least its not visible like how the ears naturally tend to move towards the inviting direction)!
Good Morning, Have a good day, Stay safe, Good Night – all with a warm smile and to top them all, the instant hugs! They pass an unknown warmth to the soul!
Public library – what do I say? Pure bliss!!
And the trigger for this post is an incident shared by M
One evening, M, few more and a differently-abled person were waiting to board the bus.
For the uninitiated, the buses here are well equipped to accommodate differently-abled people. The front door steps will be lowered and an accessible platform will be opened up so that the person can smoothly get into the bus with her/his motored wheelchair. The driver folds first row of seats and buckles up the wheelchair with the secured belt in that row.
Back to the incident, the bus reached the stop a while later and unfortunately the accessible platform didn’t work how hard the driver tried. The driver was left with no option but to ask the person to wait for the next bus. The highlight was what she did after that. She also waited for the next bus to arrive the stop. Of course, some passengers at the bus were furious including M as all that every soul wanted was to go back home soon after a tiring work day! But, the driver didn’t budge. She waited for ten minutes until the next bus arrived, helped the person to board the bus and kicked her own bus only after the other bus left.
I don’t know if I would have appreciated this at the heat of the moment but thinking about it now I say this as a noble act and God bless America for inculcating these attitudes in every (okay at least every other) common man as a natural social behavior!
Between my littles and me 