Being Good To A Stranger (Good Experience)

Being Good To A Stranger...

Before I start this blog… let me give you some background as to why I even thought of penning down something about a random stranger I met last week… These days I am re-reading ( not sure if such a word exists… bad with grammar you see) … so where was I.. yeah re-reading the book ‘Who will Cry when you die?’ By Robin Sharma… who is Robin Sharma… ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ guy… yeahh… the guy who talks of philosophy which does not makes sense to 90% of the world… well does hit my heart… so dedicating this blog to him…

So last week I was reading the chapter ‘Everyday be Kind to a Stranger’ … With back to back stumbling blocks in my life I wasn’t sure if I can be kind these days to even those I know since ages… as ‘Days with Myself’ phase is in progress in my life for now… and Robin Sharma expects me to be good to a stranger… Damnn… Something that I would take time to follow… But as they say… God will plant people and will ask us to do all those things which we don’t wanna do... HIS time as they say… I read this chapter and got to meet a stranger… but trust me … was good to him :) … before I narrate the story I would like to share the Robin Sharma’s chapter I read…

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Every Day, Be Kind to a Stranger

On his deathbed, Aldous Huxely reflected on his entire life’s learning and then summed it up in seven simple words: ‘Let us be kinder to one another’… All too often, we believe that in order to live a truly fulfilling life we must achieve some great act or grand feat that will put us on the front covers of magazines and newspapers. Nothing could be further from the truth. A meaningful life is made up of series of daily acts of decency and kindness, which, ironically, add up to something truly great over the course of lifetime...

Everyone who enters your life has a lesson to teach and a story to tell. Every person you pass during the moments that make up your days represents an opportunity to show a little more of the compassion and courtesy that defines your humanity. Why not start being more of the person you truly are during your days and doing what you can to enrich the world around you? In my mind, if you make even one person smile during your day or brighten the mood of even one stranger, your day has been a worth while one. Kindness, quite simply, is the rent we must pay for the space we occupy on this planet…

Become more creative in the ways you show compassion to strangers. Paying the toll for the person in the car behind you, offering your seat on the subway to someone in need and being first one to say hello are great places to start...

So try being kind to a stranger, every day…

__________________________ Robin Sharma


Story Goes like this…

After a long day at work… well in Teradata if you work continuously from 9-6 then indeed it’s a long long day for you… So after the long day of work I dumped my lappy in my locker and rushed outta office … was waiting for my Borivali bus to come down… Was in no mood to talk or converse with anyone… So was just giving a casual smile to those I knew who were also waiting for the Teradata bus… Was I talking on cell phone?… Good question…people who know me well will definitely debate over the fact as to why was I not having any conversation over the phone even though my office hours were over… Yeah guys its true… that day wasn’t really in the mood to talk to anyone over the phone… Hey stop … Don’t come over to meet me after listening to this… its not that I have said ‘Mujhe-dawa-nahi-duwa-ki-jarurat-hai’… I am fine guys… its just a silly phase I am going through…

After waiting for 15 mins finally Teradata bus for Borivali came up… I rushed to catch my favorite window seat… well second last row, window seat is my favorite seat… hehe… When we were getting in the driver said this isn’t borivali bus but Thane bus… I was a little disappointed… while I as getting off the bus I suddenly said ‘damn borivali bus is always late’ … a guy besides me .. a total stranger thought I am telling him… He replied saying.. ‘ You are right’… I gave him the look that said ‘Do-I-Know-You’ … he was this tall dark guy… jisse dekhke koi bhi bol dega… ‘South Indian hai’ … (Not that I have anything against south Indians… I too belong to the same clan)… so to him I just replied with a casual smile… then he started talking to me as if he knows me for ages… and in my mind I was like … ‘I-am-not-interested’ … Started praying for my bus to arrive…

Finally my bus arrived… I got in and landed on my fav seat… Normally I don’t talk to anyone while traveling.. Either I read some book…. Or listen to some relaxing music on my I-pod… Or just watch people outside the window… And my agenda was not gonna change that day too… But to my surprise that guy came and sat besides me and said a loud ‘HI’ … I gave him the look .. ‘No-Not-Again-Please’ … But suddenly Robin Sharma’s voice came as aakaashwaani to me ‘Be Good to a Stranger, Each day’ …

So to his loud ‘Hi’ I replied with an equally soft ‘Hi’ and started looking out of the window… Then started the conversation that did not end till I reached Borivali…

Stranger: So, you are new in Teradata

Me: Not really, it’s been 7 months (I said 7 months as if it’s since the dinosaurs were officially declared as extinct)

Stranger: Oh.. its been just 3 months ever since I joined Teradata.

Me : (Good for you) … Ohh that’s good… So I am your senior out here… (Again looked outta window)

Stranger: So you basically from Mumbai…

Me: Yup, officially belong to south Indian clan… but my parents moved to Mumbai 26 years back… (Was thinking why was I giving him the statistics)

Stranger: Oh that’s great… I have been in Mumbai since past 1 year now… Earlier I was in Cap Gemini…

Me: (Yo!…. That’s my dream company) … Good… Cap Gemini… So whats your total IT experience…

Stranger: 4 years… yours?

Me: 3.3 years … ( Damn we engineers get so specific with numbers… like... my kaamwaali’s age is 28.8 years )

Stranger : Cool… so here I am your senior… So which practice…

Me: Datastage and yours?

Stranger: Abinito …

After a short pause…

Stranger: Btw I am from Andhra Pradesh…

Me : Then how come you landed in Mumbai… Hyderabad is the place for u… (I know I was a lil blunt there)

Stranger : Well good question… But if I end up getting a job in Hyd then my parents will get me married off… and thts the last thing on my mind right now… and apart from that i love travelling...

Me: (Damn even guys run away from marriage) … Oh.. thts bad…

After the background check… I was a little comfortable talking to him… Then he started narrating me all the train fiascos he had when he first came down to Mumbai… he told me that he loved the word ‘ Sorry’ … and he always used that genuinely… once he went to a crowded market and he ended by saying ‘Sorry’ ‘Sorry’ ‘Sorry’ to all those he pushed due to the crowd… finally he realized in Mumbai ‘sorry’ didn’t mean anything… hehe… he was just on and on and on… in the entire bus all were sleeping.. only we were talking and laughing all over the place… he didn’t know hindi… suddenly he got an sms in hindi… he asked me to translate the same in English… damn that was an experience… translation did make the sms sound totally dull…

But must tell you that this stranger did make me laugh for 2 hours in the bus… While getting off all he said was … we are IT proffesionals… important kaam hamesha last main karte hai… just one last question… ‘Whats your name’… I replied saying…’Rashmi’…. He said…’Anil’… see you soon… and he departed…

Next day in office… I saw him sitting just 2 cubicles away from mine… we overlook so many people I felt… for the past 3 months someone was sitting 2 cubicles away from my project area…. But I never bothered to even look here or there… was too much involved with people I know I guess…

So Robin Sharma… it was good to be good to a stranger last week… indeed he interrupted my agenda of spending time with myself on my way back home… but he did spread laughter and some pakauu jokes for 2 hours… but did help me feel good…

Just helped me conclude that people from outta Mumbai are really innocent people… His innocence was something I noticed… in his words … in his few experiences in Mumbai… made me feel indeed innocence is a bliss …

______________________________Rashmi (24th Oct,2010)