The Power of kindness – Aap to mere bhai ho!

This is an incident from my childhood, I was in 6th grade when this happened.
I lived in the outskirts of Mumbai(Virar) , but I travelled in the local train to Mumbai in my school, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya, Malad.

My mother gave me five rupees everyday so that I could share a rickshaw to come home from Virar railway station to my home.
The auto rickshaw, if one doesn’t know is a three-wheeled vehicle where the driver sits in front and barely 3 people can sit behind.
But since it was share-a-rickshaw, one passenger would sit with the driver, they would adjust in one seat, and if lucky, two would sit there! Me being the small child, often had to sit there, unfortunately and uncomfortably!

It was my lucky day, I got a seat in the back, and I was really happy as I got the last seat where I could see outside and feel the wind, I was accompanied by two ladies. Just one more passenger with the driver and we were ready to go! Unfortunately , a lady came over, and as a rule, everyone looked at me to give up my seat and sit ahead with the driver.

The driver offered, “Madam, aap peeche baith jao. (madam, you sit behind).”
As I was getting down, something amazing happened.

The lady, well in 25 or early 30’s, sat beside the driver, kept her hand around his shoulder and said, “Arey bhaiya, aap toh mere bhai ho! Mai yahan baith jati hu! Muje vaise bhi nazdeek utarna Hai…”(Hey, you are like my brother, I’ll sit here. And anyway, I want to get down just a few blocks from here!)

This gesture, it inspired me. The driver was embarrassed and he was blushing. But the smile, the innocence that was on his face, he was just bowled over by her. He was uncomfortable on the outside, but on the inside he might have felt the warmth of that gesture.

Something tells me, that this man would definitely do something out of his way to help that lady if he ever got a chance to do so.

This is the power of kindness. I don’t expect everyone to do so, it is not practical, but we should at least be kind to people that we know, that we trust. I don’t expect you to make friendship with everyone you meet, it is not advisable. But the point is, being kind doesn’t hurt.

Even if the driver may have had other thoughts about her, they were all neutralized by her gesture.

That’s the power of being kind, we can easily win over the evil in other’s heart.