How many and how often do we meet people who come in our life like a passing wind teach a lesson and go and leaving imperishable footprints in our heart…Hmmm… not many right?
I am going to write now about one of my memorable days in my life. One day we had gone to watch Window on China an extraordinary display of monuments and culture around the world and in particular China. It was simply wonderful.
After spending the whole day in Window on China ….we were coming out of it…Just by couple of seconds we missed the bus to go back office. It just passed in front of us. So again we went back inside to sit, as it was very cold outside and also we had another 30 minutes of time till the next bus arrived. Then after sometime my colleague noticed a kid's cap lying on the ground. I took it and asked her, should I go and give it to the girl….she said ok… there was a family which had gone outside just 2-3minutes back, so I took that cap and went outside…guessing it must be their kid's….as I approached their car… a little girl around 6-7 years of age was coming from one side of car to the other side…I gave her the cap….she didn't know what to tell, just smiled. I smiled back and then came back and sat in our place.
In the wall clock it was reading 18.25 so we started towards the bus stop, just when we were exiting from the door again the bus passed by the bus stop, there were no people in the bus stop, so the bus didn't stop. Again we missed the bus. We didn't want to take any risk so we just stood there waiting for the bus. It was shivering cold and dark(it used to get dark by 5.00 PM.)
The little girl's family was inside the car….they were waiting exactly in front of the exit door near the bus stop. Since we missed two buses. As my colleague had sweater there was no problem for her…. But I had come out without any jerkin….I was shivering and the cool wind was blowing badly to my face. She asked me to come for a walk around that place, I said no…as it was very cold, wind was strong and I was wearing half sleeve T-shirt. She was walking here and there as if in tension, I sat there with head down as if I lost everything…wishing if that family could give us a drop.
That car was still there; probably they were waiting for somebody. After sometime my colleague came running waving towards the approaching bus. We got into the bus and I showed the driver the address where we wanted to go (Taipei Domestic Airport). He told in their language, "this is not the bus". So we got down feeling bad.
Then after a minute that car started and it came near to us. A lady who was sitting in the front seat asked us something in Chinese language; we understood that, she was asking where were we going? We said Taipei domestic airport. Again she told something in Chinese, showing her hand towards seat, we understood that she is asking us to come with them. So we agreed to come along, we sat inside. There were 5 kids inside!!! One may be 4-5 months old, two around 1 year old, 2 girls of around 6-7 years!!! Then the car started, the lady was giving directions to her husband. The journey to Taipei Domestic Airport is very long about 1 and 1/2 hr, around 70 Kms from here. We started…..then in between I slept for sometime. After two hours we were no where near the Taipei airport. We started guessing that they have lost the route. I felt bad about all this as they were coming to the airport only to drop us. That lady was searching something, later found her mobile in one of the bag, called some 3 digit number… . noted down the numbers in another mobile. Called that number and then told her husband something. I guess first she called up help line to get Airport phone number then called airport for the address. We were not in a position to tell them anything, as she didn't know even a little bit of English. We called our office administrator and asked her to tell them to drop us here, so that we can take a taxi. She told them the same, but they were not willing to, they wanted to drop us to our office directly. But again they lost the way.
Meanwhile we tried talking to kids. One girl knew little bit English, she asked my name. I told her mine and then asked hers. She said Cathey. Then I asked her whether the lady in front was her mother. She said "no she is her sister and the other three kids in the car are her sister's kids". Then she asked about my colleague, I said "she is my colleague". She didn't understand. Then I wrote "office" on a paper. She got the meaning. Then I wrote "colleague"...She didn't understand, then I wrote "co-worker" she still didn't understand, then I wrote Engineer, still she didn't understand!!! Ooops …then I wrote Computer then engineer...Then office...Then something she understood. Then I asked where do you stay? She didn't understand, so I said "Place…Place…. your place"….she didn't understand…. Then I told "we stay in Taipei, where you stay…our place Taipei….your place?" didn't understand then we had to draw a picture of a house and asked "where?"…then she told some place, but we couldn't understand…….. :))….
The other small kid was sleeping …she got up…I guess she was 1 year old. The elder girl gave a her some chocolates to give us…that small kid stretched her hand and gave us some chocolates…she was so cute….like this she gave 3 chocolates!!! Then I gave her a Pen. I thought its better to give them something in return… ………… After sometime again we called our office administrator to tell them where to drop us….This happened 3-4 times. They tried their best. I was telling my colleague that I will give them a gift which I had bought. We were very grateful to them for all that they were doing for us. We called our office administrator to convey the same. The administrator spoke to the lady. The lady smiled back and spoke happily in their language. Later we came to know that actually she was feeling very bad that they couldn't drop us home…finally they stopped…. She gave us two mobile key chains as gift and said something in Chinese…..my colleague gave a cute baby doll as a gift to the lady. She was not willing to accept it…we forced her to take it…finally she took the doll. While coming out of the car…all were waving and bidding good bye. All of them were shouting "byeee…byeee….byeee…byeee………" as if they knew us since many years….I said to myself "so nice of them"…………… They came all the way and drove for nearly 40-50 kms just to drop us off. Even though they were not able to drop us home they took all the effort to come this far, which I'm sure was not in their home path…A wonderful and an overwhelming Thanks Giving indeed.
--------Signing Off remembering this...
aMAr
“HELP OTHERS TO HELP YOURSELF”
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