Sitting on his chair, an old man waved his hand toward almost every passerby on the road between Gurudwara, Malviya Nagar, and Toot Sarai, a busy suburb in the capital city of India, New Delhi.
Sumita, one of our colleagues noticed him often as she used to take a walk in a park at Malviya Nagar every morning at around 9 am.
Suddenly, one day when she was passing by the old man, the old man called her with his hand gestures only and tried to give her something but our friend, being a Delhiite felt a bit skeptical and didn’t find it comfortable to take it, so she ignored the man and walked away from there.
As she walked away from there, her mind remained stuck on what just unusual happened to her right past a moment away. So, she kept repeatedly looking back out of curiosity to see what the old man had just done and wondered what might be his intentions behind his actions. Within a few seconds, another lady from the opposite direction came to greet him and also touched his feet. My colleague stopped and turned around completely as she couldn’t resist watching what was going on. That old man gave her something too from his pocket and she took it as prasad (oblation) and walked passes away. Maybe that development in the series of events gave her something to trust or let go of it.
The day was gone, and it was the morning of the second day of what has happened earlier, nearly the same time, she was passing on that same road and that old man called her with his hand gestures again. This time, our friend went near him and the old man handed her a few candies, toffees, and dry fruits with a loving smile and without uttering a word to her. It was a very heartfelt gesture, which our friend had never seen in her life before.
On the third day, our colleague was prepared to talk to the old person about him, his whereabouts, and his everyday gestures for others while sitting on the chair. But when she went closer to the place where the man used to sit, she couldn’t find that old man, she stayed there for quite some time to wait for him patiently but the old man didn’t come. So she took the picture of his chair thinking that maybe the old man does not come every day. And she also couldn’t find anyone there to ask about his whereabouts.
She felt something in her heart that day, she realized there is still some “good” left in the “bad”. The man was unconditionally spreading his love around him, by waving at people, smiling at them, or by just giving them sweets. The Moral she has learned through this episode was that life becomes more meaningful by spreading love.
Not all the time we should be skeptical of the things going around us. However, city life molded us like this in a way, that it has become harder to trust, and we have started to doubt everyone and the intentions behind their acts. However, it takes time to recognize someone’s true intentions behind their actions in these times of mere deception and wrongdoings. However, we must never forget not everyone is the same. There are few people alive who give love unconditionally.