Small Lessons..

I was in Delhi last week on an official visit. My office is in Noida so I had to book a cab for two days to commute. As it was sunday I tried to visit as many family and friends I could in that one day. I got very late to reach the taxi stand to book my cab. The drivers were already in half sleep. One driver woke up and made the booking. I thought he had a hearing problem because I was repeating everything thrice to make him understand. In the end I asked him who would come in the morning, to which he said it was his turn to go next so he would come. My first thought was no!! please get your hearing aids along or I'll get mad.

Next morning, he stood outside my house right on time whereas I got late. The office was very far, so it took us long to find the way and reach there. But this time, he was hearing absolutely fine. While coming back in the evening, he was in a different mood. Probably he was fed up of waiting the whole day so he wanted to talk. He asked me all types of questions - about my office (which he called factory), my company, what work did I have here, what are the work timings etc etc. I obviously tried my best to neglect him and escape his questionnaire but lost miserably. Then was his turn to talk about himself. He had a son and a daughter, daughter being elder and of marriageable age. While talking about his daughter, his voice turned from an illiterate driver's to a responsible father's. It had the tones of a poor man's helplessness and a father's worry.

My sister is also of the same age and we are also looking for a match for her. So, at a level I related to the feeling and empathized. The way he narrated his problems, doubts and experiences was so intense and powerful that I could see myself being swept away. For a moment it felt as if my own father is teaching me the hard facts of life. His clarity of thought, maturity, and choice of words was better than many of us 'educated' people. I saw an extremely broadminded and thoughtful father in him. Obviously I did not share anything about my family but that was something he didn't expect too. After a while I realized that he was talking to himself more than me. Maybe that is what gives him such strength and clarity in his thoughts.

For the next two days, he was always on time but was much quieter. Maybe he was regretting that he talked about his personal life to me. Don't know who is better.. him or me? While he regretted sharing his life with me, I am discussing it in a public forum.

Seems life teaches lessons better than books.

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In that busy trip, this feeling about the driver got buried somewhere. My work started in full swing the moment I landed in Bangalore. I would never have recognized the lesson life taught me through that driver if I had not read the blog of my boss in our official blog site. He also had an incident with a driver while he was in Chennai.

Maybe this is what our 'fast' life is doing to us. Our mind's archival system is working faster than required. We don’t register the small but good things in life.