A Heart-Warming Experience - Journal Day-15
We should recognise and acknowledge small acts of kindness, and goodness and if possible, celebrate them.
04-05-2025 - Early Morning
In the present society, in most urban settings, we are losing our personal touch. Though we live in a crowded place, we mostly live like aliens in our community. We seldom know our neighbours. We are out of touch with fellow humans.
We go through our mostly monotonous daily city lives without taking notice of others, our neighbours, fellow travellers with whom we share our day as we travel in public transport or even on a crowded elevator. We go about, oblivious of our surroundings, almost like zombies. We put on a mask as we leave our home, trying to hide our inner feelings and vulnerabilities as best as possible. We mostly live a life of disconnected individuals in the crowded city.
We are so used to being a nonentity in our busy city lives that we seldom remember that people run the system on which our city lives depend, not the other way around. Most often, we train ourselves to treat and be treated by others by erecting barricades, bureaucratic or otherwise, so that we do not feel guilty when we treat others, or others treat us, without empathy. We hide behind systems, rules and regulations and justify our treatment of each other with a peculiar apathy.
So when we see someone breaking the bureaucratic barricades to reach out to us as one human being to another, trusting us as a person, we are taken aback and feel uneasy and suspicious. We feel ill at ease and suspicious because we are not accustomed to bureaucratic kindness in the modern civilisation.
So even a small act of reaching out, a small gesture of trust and respect from a stranger, especially when one is on the receiving end, is a refreshing and welcoming change. We get a jolt and come out of our deep reverie when we suddenly realise someone has noticed us and treated us like individuals, not just as a part of the teaming humanity. We almost feel embarrassed and out of place, and do not know how to react.
The incident happened one evening when I was returning home from work. Most days, I take the circular train on my way back home. This is a suburban line that circles the city. The station from which I board the train is near my workplace, and it is convenient for me to take the train home. My destination station is about a 15-minute ride, just four stations away, from where I board the train.
I usually purchase my ticket before I board the train every day. With the advent of technology, one can buy tickets online. One can also buy a monthly pass instead of buying tickets daily. But I do none of these. I prefer buying my ticket daily before boarding the train.
The ticket counter is a small window fenced off by a metal grill. Inside the window, a middle-aged person sits and sells tickets. Most days, the same person sells me the ticket. I do not know his name. The only interaction I have with him is to give him the price of the ticket, most often the exact amount in small change, and say thank you when he hands me the ticket.
The other day, as I went up to the window to buy my ticket for the train ride home, I realised I did not have the exact amount in small change. The ticket price is just Rupees five, and I had only hundred-rupee notes on me. Though it is unfair to ask to buy something worth only five rupees by tendering a hundred-rupee note, we are forced to do it sometimes. And if the change is available, the person does not mind accepting a hundred-rupee note and giving back the change. Most people I find are accommodating.
Problems arise when the person does not have the requisite change to give in return, which was the case this time with me. I did not have the exact amount to buy my ticket, and hence tendered a one-hundred-rupee note, and the person selling me the ticket did not have the required change to give back to me.
In most similar situations, the seller refuses to sell the ticket or any other merchandise he is selling. This is understandable only. Had it been any product I was buying, I could have increased the quantity of purchase to accommodate the situation, helping the seller to give me back the change. But in this case, I was buying a ticket only for myself. I cannot purchase more than one ticket for a single journey for one person.
I hesitated, thinking that I needed to change the one hundred rupee by purchasing something else and then again get back to the counter to buy the ticket with the exact amount.
I was about to leave the ticket counter when he gave me the ticket, giving back the one-hundred-rupee note as well. I was surprised as I looked at him.
He gave me a faint, matter-of-fact smile and said, “Don’t worry. Take the ticket anyway. I know you travel daily. When you return to buy the ticket tomorrow, you pay me back this amount.”
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I was taken aback. The person could have easily hidden behind the system, refusing to sell the ticket to me. Here is someone showing me kindness that I do not deserve. Here is someone refusing to hide behind the bureaucratic barricade and treating me as one man should treat another, with trust and respect.
Cynics, sceptics and naysayers may think otherwise. “What of it, it is only a matter of five rupees”, they may say. But for me, it is not about the paltry amount. It is more than that. Much deeper, more hopeful and realising the inherent goodness of man.
Humanity survives on similar small acts of kindness, goodness and acknowledgement of each other as fellow humans. In our busy lives, we may encounter small kindnesses but might not even think twice about them. We may pass by and forget it the next moment. But to me, we should recognise and acknowledge these small acts, and if possible, celebrate them.
I would remember the trust and kindness the person showed me, a stranger, but a fellow human being.
It is easier to show kindness to those we know and love. Showing kindness to a stranger takes both faith and courage.
Of course, I refused to take advantage of the situation. I left the counter, changed the one-hundred-rupee note by buying something, and purchased the ticket by tendering the exact amount. But that is a different issue.
Whenever I meet him, I smile and acknowledge him as a fellow human.