A ride in the Taxi

Today was one of those days when u got up to find a rainy
day ahead. With the sky in shades of grey, it just doesn't take much longer to
have those shades come over your own mood. Also with kids at home, cant hit the
Gym to toss off that gloom either. So there goes my workout!!! Afternoon
arrives and I get ready to drop A1(that's my son) for his class.Not in any mood
to drive  n brave the Mumbai flooding, I
decide to take the ever available Taxi. Also since I'm already running late,its
better to leave the driving n swearing to another person.As I hail a cab and
get into it, I notice a neighbour also waiting for a cab. The Taxi driver
noticed that I know the people,so tells me, "Madam,ask them where they wish to
go n we can drop them there" .Surprised by the gesture,I politely ask the lady
where she's heading to. She replies that she's going someplace which is ahead
of my destination. I inform her that I could getoff at my destination and she
can take the cab further.But she tells me to carry on and that she'l find
another cab.At this the Taxi driver tells me-'Madam,you did ur bit of helping
them out ,now don't go further.If they do not wish to share the cab, you
shoudnt bother abt it'.  I settled into
the cab n we moved.The man then started to talk with me.Generally Im the
talkative types and initiate conversations with just abt anyone n anywhere. But
today, in my gloomy mood,I did not wish to indulge in any talks. I could see he
was trying to talk with me, a lil more tham nost taxi drivers will do.Mind you,
our cabbies come in all sorts, but many prefer to keep their mouths shut.This
one seemed too eager to converse,so I let him do most of the conversing,while I
put in my lil 'Hmms n Ohs'.He started off saying that 'Bhalai ka Zamana nahi
hai.Hum kisi ki madat karna chaahte hain par log hamein galat samajhte hain.
Par hum ne accha kaam karte rehna chahiye, kyuonki Bhagwaan toh dekh hi rahaa
hai.Ab aap ke pehchaan waale agar aap ke saath jaana nahin chahte to koi baat
nahi. Aapne apna farz pura kar liya unhe poochkar.Baki rahi unki marzi !!".
Then he went on to another topic."Madam, paani ke bina to hum jeevit nahin reh
sakte.Lekin bahut zyaada paani bhi jeevan ko khatm kar deta hai.Ab jab baadh
(floods) aati hai toh sab nasht ho jaata hai na???  Initially I thought he was a lil not
normal(Im sorry,but I did feel like that when he started talking), but then I
saw that he was speaking philosophy.  The
man then turned to another topic. Said, "Jab koi baadh ya beemari mein log
marte hain to log sochhte hain ki marne waale ne koi bade paap kiye honge, par
aisaa nahin hai. Takleef to sabhi par aati hai. Humein kisi ko buraa nahin
kehna chahiye,kuon madam, baraabar baat hai naa??  And he turned and smiled.I liked this bit of
nicety coming from this man,not  more
than 35yrs old.He was not a teacher,nor a leader or a highly educated
person,and yet he had his thought processes working  in the right manner. Within a span of 5
minutes he passed on his positive outlook to me. How I cringed at myself for
judging him as not normal in the beginning. And there he had proved that being
an ordinary taxi driver didn't make him any lesser human than I was. And so I
decided to speak something positive every day and pass on that positive feel to
someone else n let him take it from there. Sometimes all it takes is a Smile to
pass on a nice n happy feeling to someone. U may never know how u may have
touched that person's life, but what have u got to lose. The Taxi driver has
struck a chord in me. May God bless him n his family and may he keep on
touching people's lives the way he did mine.