The precious smiles!

My day started like it usually does on all working days. The same rush to leave, inevitably getting late, getting a bus in the nick of time! But it surely wasn't meant to be the same after that.

Travelling in the mornings by bus means lots of school children too. Some travelling with parents, others in groups without any adult. I saw two young boys today in the same bus as mine. As their stop neared, they held each others’ hands and guided themselves through to the swerving bus's door. One of them started rummaging through his pocket for the exact fare when the conductor smiled at them, and said in Bengali, patting their heads, "You don't have to pay the fare. Leave it. Go to school and study properly, both of you."

Smiling at the incident, I forgot about it as quickly as it had happened.

In the evening after leaving from work, I was waiting for a friend. With nothing to do and not wanting to immerse myself in my cell as always, I started looking around. A young couple was having puchkas nearby. A small child, a beggar’s son, maybe around 5 years old, came begging towards the couple. Immediately, without hesitating or thinking twice, the guy handed over the puchka he was about to eat, to the child. The small child walked away with a smile on his face and such excitement in his eyes, it touched my heart!

It was then that I remembered the incident in the morning. 

It is these little things that we notice on and off which can make even a bad day worth remembering! And am I glad that I noticed not one but two such incidents in a day!

It feels nice to see a little humanity, a little humility and a little care when all you keep reading about in the papers are gruesome stories of crime, ego and passion!