It was yet another hot & humid day in the month of April and Mumbai was living up to its reputation of torturing and draining out the last drop of water from your system. After a hectic yet fun-filled weekend, I had to catch a bus to reach to my house. Sunday was about to come to and end and Monday blues were getting even bluer by each passing second.
Lazily, I picked my stuff from a friend's place and reach the bus stop. By now, you could imagine that there was nothing exciting about the proceedings. After standing for about 15 minutes, a bus came and to my surprise there was no rush in it. I hopped on to it and as a custom, chose a window seat so as to make myself feel a little better. In Mumbai weather, water and wind does help and makes you feel strong enough to bear the painstakingly slow traffic. Today, was however different, no traffic jams and no rush in the bus made me feel a zillion times better. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard the ticket collector's voice, Ticket Ticket. I gave him the money and got my ticket. Out of routine, I took a look at the ticket collector's face and saw an unusual smile on his face.
Sporting a smart cap and a genuine smile on his face, he was asking each and every passenger for buying tickets. He was also shouldering an additional responsibility of helping people with the directions of their destinations. Even when the bus got crowded and there was very little space to move around, this guy with his cap still on his head, felt at ease and never frowned on anyone.
His smile as genuine as a copy book cover drive out of Dravid's willow was good enough to force many a people to smile back at him.
In hard times when there are so many reason to frown over, this simple guy with a not-so-dream-about kind of job is teaching the people, how to smile. A very basic trait of human kind which is so vital in today's time is to smile but we never do this or deliberately chose things which makes us feel sad.
Hats off to you, Err, Caps off to you, Mr. Smiling Ticket Collector!!
Lazily, I picked my stuff from a friend's place and reach the bus stop. By now, you could imagine that there was nothing exciting about the proceedings. After standing for about 15 minutes, a bus came and to my surprise there was no rush in it. I hopped on to it and as a custom, chose a window seat so as to make myself feel a little better. In Mumbai weather, water and wind does help and makes you feel strong enough to bear the painstakingly slow traffic. Today, was however different, no traffic jams and no rush in the bus made me feel a zillion times better. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder and heard the ticket collector's voice, Ticket Ticket. I gave him the money and got my ticket. Out of routine, I took a look at the ticket collector's face and saw an unusual smile on his face.
Sporting a smart cap and a genuine smile on his face, he was asking each and every passenger for buying tickets. He was also shouldering an additional responsibility of helping people with the directions of their destinations. Even when the bus got crowded and there was very little space to move around, this guy with his cap still on his head, felt at ease and never frowned on anyone.
His smile as genuine as a copy book cover drive out of Dravid's willow was good enough to force many a people to smile back at him.
In hard times when there are so many reason to frown over, this simple guy with a not-so-dream-about kind of job is teaching the people, how to smile. A very basic trait of human kind which is so vital in today's time is to smile but we never do this or deliberately chose things which makes us feel sad.
Hats off to you, Err, Caps off to you, Mr. Smiling Ticket Collector!!
