In Remembrance of Our Beloved Daadi Maa

Late Smt. Sarbati Devi
1920-2008

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.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

History Strikes Back!

In a rather cold morning today, I was waiting for my mother to come out of the airport. It was her first air travel and that too, alone. Her flight had landed about 45 minutes back and she had still not come out. She was not carrying a cell phone and due to the Republic Day security, no visitors were allowed to go inside the arrival terminal. With every passing minute my worry increased. I was really anxious to see her now. After a fidgety wait, I finally saw my mom coming out of the airport. Her baggage trolley was fully loaded and she was accompanied by a young and beautiful girl.

I waived to my mother but she didn’t notice. That girl saw me and conveyed it to my mother. They came out, I hugged my mother and then she told me that there was some baggage problem which took so much time. She introduced me to that girl. They had met at the Delhi airport and she helped my mother a lot during the travel. Although it was her first travel too but still having a companion makes things very simple. The girl called her brother who was supposed to receive her at the airport but had not arrived. He was coming from a far end of the city and hence I guessed that he would take atleast another one hour to reach there.

She looked very young, probably a higher secondary student but she was actually a teacher by profession, pursuing M.Com. in Delhi. For courtesy sake (actually mom’s sake) we had to wait there till her brother arrives. So we went to a nearby coffee shop. I was already stunned by the level of comfort they had with each other. She was touching my mom more than I would and my mom was talking to her as if they’ve been friends forever! While my mother got busy calling my family back in Delhi to inform about her safe arrival, we started a pep talk. She was not fond of coffee so I got her juice and coffee for me and mom. I was not at all surprised by the fact that she already knew much about me. “So, is HCL a call center or a software company?” she softly asked. No need to laugh on this, most Delhi girls (who don’t work in corporate) would ask you the same question almost boasting that they can differentiate between the two.

Then she started asking me about Bangalore, the weather, the hang-outs etc. She had a sweet voice, quite complimenting her cute face. Although she wore braces but that was definitely not the first thing you would notice about her. She was quite disheartened to know that her ‘aunty’ would stay very far from her in Bangalore so she won’t be able to meet her easily. At this point, it was quite easy to ask for her number but as the connecting link was my mother I refrained from that.

After about an hour, her brother arrived. From no angle he looked a three years younger brother to her but I had little choice in believing that. Then we did a hurried bye, my mother hugging her (ofcourse) and we proceeded towards an auto.

“Aditi’s brother looks very old for his age, isn’t it?” my mother asked after boarding the auto.
"Hmmm.." I nodded uninterestingly.
“What... what was her name?” I asked after an uncomfortable pause.
she plainly replied,“Aditi Gupta”.

Sunday Morning

I had slept at 3 A.M. after watching a movie. Though the music of mosquitoes was hard on my ears.... I was in a deep sleep. At sometime around 5:30 or 6 in the morning, the mosquiotes became unbearable and, rubbing my eyes, I decided to get up and put the fan on top speed. Just when I got up, I heard a faint noise of vibration. I had left my phone on Silent mode by mistake. Had I been asleep or had I already increased the speed of fan, I would never have heard that sound. There was a message from my sister.. she was going out and she has messaged me from the Airport.

Nothing special in the incident as such... but the exclusivity of the coincidence struck me.

That conjunction of events made me call my sister and I had a brief chat before she left.

Are some things predestined?

I am Unmystifying Life!