TRUST AND HONESTY ARE INFECTIOUS, JUST AS DOUBT AND FEAR, TOO, ARE
“How can people
trust the harvest unless they see it sown?”
- Lifehacks.io
I had left home this morning, as usual at 7.30. I was carrying my office
bag and the breakfast and lunch packed and given by my wife. I got inside a
waiting auto. The young auto driver was a new face to me. When he stopped the
auto near my classes, I suddenly realized that I had not carried any money with
me… For a moment, my face fell, and I meekly whispered to the young auto driver
that I had not carried any money with me… For a while, he became silent. As my
class was to start at 8, students had not come yet… I thought of ringing a neighbor’s door-bell… but, hesitated a bit… It was too early to disturb them, I thought… By
then, the auto driver said, “Sir, koi
baat nahi; hota hai kabhi kabhi.”
I was feeling bad… “Aap ka pehla
baada hai; accha nahin lagta hai.”
“Koi baat nahin Sir,” he calmed me
down, “Aur kabhi loonga.”
But, I wasn’t at rest… I stored his mobile number. His name was
Kashinath. He told, that he lived not very far from my housing complex. I, once
again, expressed my regrets and promised him, that I wound arrange to handover
to him the fare amount by today night. He kept telling me not to worry about it…
As the autowala was taking a reverse to leave, a man who was washing a
car parked a few steps away from our spot, asked, “Kya hua saab?” I hadn’t seen him before. When I explained to him
my situation, he pulled thirty rupees from his shirt pocket and paid to the
auto driver… “Hamare teacherji hai,”
he told the driver.
Even though the driver showed some reluctance to take cash from the car-washing
person, the latter insisted on taking it. Finally, the auto driver accepted the
fare money… and off he went. I thanked the stranger who had just bailed me out.
I enquired about his name… He was Javed. I promised to pay off my debt by
tomorrow morning when he would come there to wash the cars. He, too, played it
down and asked me not to worry…
It took just two minutes to reach from there to my office… and, I got
another jolt: I had left my keys, too, at home!
This was a difficult situation… The only way to deal with it was to go
back home or ask my wife to come here with the keys. The students were expected
to arrive any moment… I called up, instinctively, Kashinath, the young
autowala. He had not reached very far and not yet picked any new passenger. I
explained to him about the new situation and asked him if he could fetch the
keys from my house… He was more than willing. I gave my house address. After that,
I dialed my wife’s number… It was coming not-reachable, continuously… I dialed my
neighbour’s number… The same story. I wanted to inform my wife about what she
had to do. Helplessly, I again called up Kashinath… He was just entering our building
lift. I requested him to connect to my wife once he reached my house… He did
through his phone. I explained the situation to my wife and asked her to hand
over the keys, my pen drive and some cash…
“How much?” my wife asked me.
It was a dicey situation… What if the fellow – a total stranger – takes the
cash and disappears? The key-bunch had our house key and the keys of my office
and classroom. The pen drive had extensive data in it… On the one side, his most
sincere and generous gesture, displayed barely fifteen minutes ago, was coming
before my mind and prompting me from inside, “Trust him… He will show up!” On
the other hand, a shrill negative voice was trying to caution me, “What if he doesn’t show up?”
The human conflict inside my mind lasted for a few seconds… I had to
answer my wife’s question: “How much?”
“630,” I said…
The calculation was: 30 for Javed bhai, 100 for Kashinath and the balance
500 for me.
Not a big risk, after all. My heart overruled my mind and said firmly, “He
will show up!”
And, he did…
When Kashinath came to handover my things, he was so full of enthusiasm and
walking towards me with his head held high… It was unmistakably evident by his demeanor,
that he had just carried out an honest job!
Of course, I would never confess about the human conflict I had to deal
with for those few seconds. In the end, even I found myself glad and proud
about what I had just done – to trust a stranger.
As I was waiting for Kashinath to come back, my friend Buzzo (the Society
dog) came near me, wagging his tail… He needed me to caress him, and he loved
that more than the biscuits he got from me. Surprisingly, I saw, a little away,
another dog… He seemed to be a friend of Buzzo. But, he was a stranger to me.
As Buzzo was getting the massage, this fellow was watching it… He wanted my
caressing, too. But, he seemed a bit skeptical and afraid… Would I caress him
or would I shoo him off as many people in the Society did? “Come here, Sweetheart,” I seduced the stranger
with my loving hands… The skepticism and fear slowly seemed to dissolve… Soon,
Buzzo’s friend, too, was getting pampered by my hands!
Kashinath and Javed bhai were gone… Buzzo and his friend – my stranger-turned-new-friend
– were now standing outside my office… Yes, for biscuits!
The world outside is definitely not as bad as, sometimes, it is made out
to be. Trust and honesty are infectious… just as doubt and fear, too, are. One
thing is clear, but: Unless we trust, unless we take some risk, confidence and
love will never be built in our hearts… The Law of Karma – ‘What goes around,
comes around’ – runs deep through Life… Yes, it does!
The quote asks: “How can people
trust the harvest unless they see it sown?”
Sow, therefore. Sow!
GERALD D’CUNHA
Pic.: Rekha Srikar Shenoy
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