Thursday, January 22, 2009

Flowers along the way


“…that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love.”

As we wend our way through life, I wonder how many little acts of kindness we leave in our trail. Little acts we don’t give much thought to even a few minutes later, even completely put out of our minds, but which mean a great deal to the persons on the receiving end.

As I write this, two incidents instantly spring to mind. Several years ago, I’d been called to attend a month’s course of training in a little town called Burdwan, a few miles away from Calcutta. The liaison officer at Mizoram House arranged a car with a house worker to drop me off at the railway station, and the worker, on leaving me at the ladies’ compartment, asked the women there to make sure I got off at Burdwan station. It was about an hour’s ride and quickly getting dark and many of the women got off before me. As I began to panic wondering how on earth I was going to get to my destination, we reached a station where this woman, young, petite, obviously not that well-off, pallu over head, gestured to me that this was my stop. She beckoned me to follow her and we manoeuvered past busy travelers, all in a hurry to get home. It was completely dark by then and there wasn’t a familiar face in sight. The woman quickly led me out the bustling station to a rickshaw stand where she spoke to one of the drivers. They asked me where I wanted to go and as I told them, she spoke to him again, waving me to get on. I thanked her profusely, quickly clambered up and she melted away into the darkness as we rattled off in another direction. A few minutes later, I was safely ensconced at the guesthouse. Had it not been for her, I’d have been helplessly floundering at the station for ages.

The second incident happened a couple of weeks later. I’d gone to Cal for the day with a friend and we were at Howrah to get back to Burdwan by the local train. As we waited in the train for an interminably long time, for some reason I got off for a minute. Perhaps it was to buy a bottle of mineral water, I don’t quite remember, but as I was caught up doing whatever it was that I’d got off to do, I heard the train hooting and slowly start pulling out. Hey, I thought, that’s my train. I ran towards it but couldn’t remember my compartment. And to my horror, the train began to put up speed and I chased after it frantically. Then through an open door, a face popped out and a strong helping arm shot out to pull me up onboard. It belonged to a strong, sturdy, young coolie who was with two or three other coolies. I thanked my savior with a huge, breathless smile of relief and thank yous in English and asked where the ladies’ compartment was. I then took the direction they pointed me to and was soon back safely where I should never have left.

These are just two of the most vivid memories I have of little acts of kindness done to me. I never got to know my saviors or their names, probably wouldn’t recognize them if I saw them again and they probably don’t remember me or the help they once gave me. But I shall always remember them and the kindness they showed me at times when I was desperately in need. It didn’t matter that I was a total stranger. I obviously needed help and they gave it.

Perhaps there are one or two people out there somewhere who might say the same about me. Here's a lovely song that totally goes with my state of mind. A Beautiful Life sung by Kim Richey. Lyrics by William M. Golden here.


15 comments:

  1. Dear j, oh my my, ka chhair zawng pawhin ka mitthla a i lang ngal uar2 mai:). Hmanah kei pawh hmelhriatloh hian bike in min thlah tawh, kawngbo , ruahsur, khawvawt karah, thim tawh bawk nen mang a ang a, ka lawm dan chu sawi phak a nilo. Mumbai a train kan um vak te pawh min ti hre chhuak tel e.
    Tin, thinrim lai hian thil sawi vak a awl a, mi huat hlawh a awl bawk. A little act of kindness is all we need in this world :). Nice post.

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  2. Hehe ka experience ang i lo tawng ve reng tawh ni maw? Rel um hi chu a lo na mai lo khawp mai, a kal muang viau emaw tih lai hian umphak chu khawi lam!
    Ni e, spread a little kindness. We all need some :)

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  3. Thil thleng pakhat min hriatchhuah tir.. :-) CEM ni tawh Lyngdoh kan lam dawn hian kawngka bo chiam tawh, kan driver inla kawng hre deuh zet zut vang vek a nia, a awmna kha HYD a kan kal ngailohna deuh hi a nia. Kan hawlam chuan amah zawkin kawng min hrilh zut zut vel... Kan zah a hlau a niang kan titi tui phian tho a. Amah atang alittle act of kindness chu ni ve tho tiraw..mahse zialo lam deuh a ni. Che chhe ve khop mai.

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  4. I had the almost exact same experience with a runaway train. Except my sturdy, young saviour helped himself to my 'humps' once he pulled me inside the overly crowded train :P

    On a more serious note, it's kind of disappointing thing that I can think of several strangers who have shown me wonderful acts of kindness, but I can't think of anyone who'd remember me in the same way...

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  5. Nice post.. I think a lot of people can relate to it..
    An airport worker helped us waive off 20 kgs of excess baggage this Jan at Kolkata, we were flying to Mumbai with JetLite which had a 20 kg limit.. and the funny part was he approached me first, I figured he wanted a tip but he didn't ask, so I didn't give.. guess I was the bad guy here..

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  6. Sawmte, va che chhe tak ve mawle. Pu Lyngdoh chuan ka naute chu an va bo hah²tak e ooo a tih ngei don che u chu haha

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  7. Jerusha, I'm pretty certain that unknown to you, there are some people somewhere who remember you for a thoughtful deed or word. I suspect the beauty of these little acts of kindess is that they're usually quickly forgotten by the giver because they seem so trivial and insignificant. But for the grateful receiver who's probably at the end of his wits, they would come as life-savers and be remembered as cherished memories of human goodness. Perhaps even as answers to heartfelt prayers :)

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  8. NotGood, thank you for dropping by. Yes, perhaps the man was looking for a tip. But then again, perhaps he just wanted to help. I think eventually he'd be grateful that instead of tipping him, you gave him the opportunity to be a good guy and do you a good turn :)

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  9. Nice! These sort of encounters is the stuff that restores faith in humanity. Along the journey of life, like you, I have been fortunate to have my trust and hope uplifted by such acts of kindness. All given in full measure and without any expectation of quid pro quo.

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  10. That's the best part of it, Loch, the no strings attached bit. Would that we could all focus more on these encounters than on the nasty ones.

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  11. Heartwarming post, and yes, little acts of kindness are so precious. We studied a poem 'Little things' in Class III, and the lines 'Little deeds of kindness/Little words of love/Make this earth an Eden/Like the heaven above' comes back to mind.

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  12. Van fel thin, dul, kai kim lawmman i hmu thei mai thei a ni :P

    mesjay, isn't it strange that we remember certain things that we did decades ago and yet we can't recall what we had for dinner last night? :P

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  13. Just drop in to see and to show a little act of kindness :)

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