My new life has imprisoned me in yet another mundane and routine activity, that is the daily ride on the bus.
Each morning I take the bus no. 106 from right outside my house to Orchard Street, right outside my office. It is a relatively effortless, stressfree, quiet, peaceful, freezing cold (hate ACs) and sometimes boring hour each way! On the positive side, this gives me the time I deserve during the day to devote to my passion for reading which was almost non-existent in the last few years, as I was doing the driving myself between Abu Dhabi an Dubai.
Due to the way my starting points are positioned I am always guaranteed a seat within one or two stops of my boarding the bus if not immediately. Yesterday, I was running less than 10 mins late but had missed one of the long buses and got into a regular size bus with a lot of other of my daily co-passengers who also seemed to have missed the earlier bus. I would blame it on the fact that it was a rainy morning and people walking outdoors with umbrellas in their hands tends to walk slowly, carefully and painfully in the way of the others trying to make a dash towards the buses they can see flying past them.
Since it was exceptionally crowded due to the circumstances, my chances at a seat were reduced until the next main metro station stop called Clementi but I was standing right next to a person who appeared to be packing up her Iphone headphones into her bag and preparing to alight. Sensing that she would get off soon, I tapped the shoulder of an elderly lady (I wouldn't call her old, somewhat similar age or a bit younger than our mothers) to point to the seat for her to take. She had a crepe bandage on her forearm, like the one we tie when we have sprained an ankle and I had noticed it when we boarded the bus together. This simple gesture of mine of giving up a seat, that was not even mine, but could have been mine, brought such immense joy and relief to this lady and seemed to have reassured her faith in the kindness that is capable only to the human heart. She thanked me and waited to be seated. As luck would have it, just after our little exchange of smiles the person sitting next to the one alighting also woke up to realise its his stop and got up. So this elderly lady and I sat down next to each other. She explained to me that she was in an accident with a taxi and her arm was broken and operated on with screws placed inside and its recovering very slowly. She got off about 20 mins later and thanked me profusely again, blessed me, graciously addessing me as "my dear" and we wished each other a good day!
As I said, I take this bus everyday and have an hour to survive in it so I am usually intent on keeping a seat when I get one. As you can imagine, its not easy and no fun at all reading a book while being pushed foward and backward with everytime the bus driver applies his brakes (which is very often, mind you, on the crowded, busy morning streets). However, I am now determined to giving up my seat to any old person I see next time, as the pains of standing for a few stops is insignificant in comparison to the joy I instilled, the smiles we exhchanged and the blessing I recieved for such a small action!
Each morning I take the bus no. 106 from right outside my house to Orchard Street, right outside my office. It is a relatively effortless, stressfree, quiet, peaceful, freezing cold (hate ACs) and sometimes boring hour each way! On the positive side, this gives me the time I deserve during the day to devote to my passion for reading which was almost non-existent in the last few years, as I was doing the driving myself between Abu Dhabi an Dubai.
Due to the way my starting points are positioned I am always guaranteed a seat within one or two stops of my boarding the bus if not immediately. Yesterday, I was running less than 10 mins late but had missed one of the long buses and got into a regular size bus with a lot of other of my daily co-passengers who also seemed to have missed the earlier bus. I would blame it on the fact that it was a rainy morning and people walking outdoors with umbrellas in their hands tends to walk slowly, carefully and painfully in the way of the others trying to make a dash towards the buses they can see flying past them.
Since it was exceptionally crowded due to the circumstances, my chances at a seat were reduced until the next main metro station stop called Clementi but I was standing right next to a person who appeared to be packing up her Iphone headphones into her bag and preparing to alight. Sensing that she would get off soon, I tapped the shoulder of an elderly lady (I wouldn't call her old, somewhat similar age or a bit younger than our mothers) to point to the seat for her to take. She had a crepe bandage on her forearm, like the one we tie when we have sprained an ankle and I had noticed it when we boarded the bus together. This simple gesture of mine of giving up a seat, that was not even mine, but could have been mine, brought such immense joy and relief to this lady and seemed to have reassured her faith in the kindness that is capable only to the human heart. She thanked me and waited to be seated. As luck would have it, just after our little exchange of smiles the person sitting next to the one alighting also woke up to realise its his stop and got up. So this elderly lady and I sat down next to each other. She explained to me that she was in an accident with a taxi and her arm was broken and operated on with screws placed inside and its recovering very slowly. She got off about 20 mins later and thanked me profusely again, blessed me, graciously addessing me as "my dear" and we wished each other a good day!
As I said, I take this bus everyday and have an hour to survive in it so I am usually intent on keeping a seat when I get one. As you can imagine, its not easy and no fun at all reading a book while being pushed foward and backward with everytime the bus driver applies his brakes (which is very often, mind you, on the crowded, busy morning streets). However, I am now determined to giving up my seat to any old person I see next time, as the pains of standing for a few stops is insignificant in comparison to the joy I instilled, the smiles we exhchanged and the blessing I recieved for such a small action!
I love your apt descriptions and correct words.
ReplyDeleteWriting is the best way to remember such sweet happenings on our life, isnt it!
Thank you...and I totally agree Nats, to me writing is better than speaking.
ReplyDeleteLove the post.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of my excruciating everyday one-hour train travel in Mumbai when book was the only resort....