Hope

I had said my good nights and fallen asleep. Yet my subconscious never seems to rest. Days recently have been hectic and yet kindness seems to find me in unexpected ways. In the chaos that is this life, in people, in their actions and in their demeaner.

Waking up seems easy these days because I have a reason to. The last time I didn't want to wake up, I ended up in bed for a month.

I was returning from my college yesterday and was approached  by this small boy. He must have been hardly 8 or 9 years old. With bare feet and tattered clothes begging for anything people would throw at him. I asked if he was hungry and gave him all the food I had with me. It wasn't much. But it must have been a lot for him.

Classes have been hour long. Sometimes stretching to 90 minutes a lecture. Result being, that it was a good 9 o'clock when I reached home. And I hadn't eaten in 8 hours. As I got closer to my house, I realised the gates were closed. The road was empty and the houses were in shadows.

But I wasn't alone. For I realised that the rickshaw waale bhaiya I had hired to get me home, stayed. This being, a man old enough to be my grandfather, probably has to work round the day to afford one square meal. And he asked me if anyone from my family had heard my request to open the gates for me and if they were coming downstairs. He asked if I would be alright.

For the second time yesterday, I looked into the eyes of a man who wanted nothing from me that benefited him more than it did me. And for the first time I realised that selflessness is everywhere around me. That bhaiya, who probably has a daughter of his own stayed back for a girl who was alone and worried.

I climbed the stairs to my room and called my mother. But I could tell her nothing. I was so overwhelmed. As soon as I disconnected, I bawled my eyes out. I was so ashamed of myself. Thinking he was nothing but someone pulling a rickshaw. I was ashamed.

As people, we forget that kindness flows through the air like wind. It creates an invisible rainbow always waiting to find it's other end. It creates bridges for the good.

Hence, tomorrow, when we wake up, let us promise ourselves to put more efforts into being the better and more polished version of ourselves. We all have had a million reasons to hurt people. To leave them crying. To be vengeful. To be mean and hateful and petty. Starting tomorrow let us give ourselves one reason daily why we can be nice and kind to everyone around us.

Let's be the hope we see diminishing in this hopeless world. The baton of light and warmth.