Just after a week of travelling by public transport, I noticed a very strange thing here. I was able to see exactly the same faces with their typical routine behavior (having cofe, reading newspaper, on phone, chatting with another friend) at the exact same time and exact same car (thats what its called here for a train bogie) or bus.
Even while I was wondering why? within a couple of weeks, I was one among them - The TYPICAL ME came into being. Taking the exact same local train/bus, then cofe on train and then either msging or talking on phone :)
Almost 2 months on this routine, I obviously had lots of familiar faces on these trains and buses. I purposefully avoided talking to anyone due to obvious reasons. But, there was this early-40's gentleman who always used to smile at me when he was boarding the local train and used say "bye, have a nice day' when alighting. I couldn't avoid that and even I used to say Hi/Bye unwillingly. Finally, one day, he opened up and started talking and shared his name, work etc and so did I. Felt a bit odd, but it was alright. After that day, my greetings were genuine.
It was holiday mood everywhere, all shops/lightings have turned red and the last day of work before holidays, he boarded the train with a huge bag of gifts and then ta-da, he gives me a gift!! a Wine bottle, nicely wrapped and a small note too!! I was perplexed. Didnt know how to react... I was like..":D thanks" thats it! I didn't even start a conversation. Donno what held me back. After he got down, I was like.. I could have atleast wished him happy holidays or atleast Thank you, Sorry I didnt get you anything.. So, my next task was to return a gift to him. I had noticed that he used to have a novel in his hand every day. As soon as I reached office, clicked on amazon.com and ordered this book - Surely, you are joking Mr. Feynman. Well, that was my best choice of the 2 books I have read till now. The other one was Love Story by Eric Segal. I was desperately waiting for the book to arrive, coz i had to confront him everyday without a retun gift. I had to extend my days in the train just to gift this to him. At last the book arrived & I gifted him with a sigh of releif in my mind & a smile on my face :)
Even while I was wondering why? within a couple of weeks, I was one among them - The TYPICAL ME came into being. Taking the exact same local train/bus, then cofe on train and then either msging or talking on phone :)
Almost 2 months on this routine, I obviously had lots of familiar faces on these trains and buses. I purposefully avoided talking to anyone due to obvious reasons. But, there was this early-40's gentleman who always used to smile at me when he was boarding the local train and used say "bye, have a nice day' when alighting. I couldn't avoid that and even I used to say Hi/Bye unwillingly. Finally, one day, he opened up and started talking and shared his name, work etc and so did I. Felt a bit odd, but it was alright. After that day, my greetings were genuine.
It was holiday mood everywhere, all shops/lightings have turned red and the last day of work before holidays, he boarded the train with a huge bag of gifts and then ta-da, he gives me a gift!! a Wine bottle, nicely wrapped and a small note too!! I was perplexed. Didnt know how to react... I was like..":D thanks" thats it! I didn't even start a conversation. Donno what held me back. After he got down, I was like.. I could have atleast wished him happy holidays or atleast Thank you, Sorry I didnt get you anything.. So, my next task was to return a gift to him. I had noticed that he used to have a novel in his hand every day. As soon as I reached office, clicked on amazon.com and ordered this book - Surely, you are joking Mr. Feynman. Well, that was my best choice of the 2 books I have read till now. The other one was Love Story by Eric Segal. I was desperately waiting for the book to arrive, coz i had to confront him everyday without a retun gift. I had to extend my days in the train just to gift this to him. At last the book arrived & I gifted him with a sigh of releif in my mind & a smile on my face :)
That was my last day in the Public Trasport :(
After this incident, I kind of felt good, but , kept pondering about
Number One......Why did he gift me???
After this incident, I kind of felt good, but , kept pondering about
Number One......Why did he gift me???
Number two.......What do I do with the wine bottle??? :)
6 comments:
Its not good to accept gift from strangers
maybe he likes you so much :))
arun anna back to tech wild west?
[Anon]: he likes me?? :yuck :)
[W_U]: Yep back to wild west. howz u?
u can send me the wine bottle and it is prbably strange that u were in public transport and not ur car
[mythoughts]: Sorry, its too late, the wine is over. I didnt have a car that time and moreover traveling to SFO by car is not feasible :)
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