Smiles from a stranger

In this current time, we never trust people who walk by our side whether its on the railway station or on the footpath or in the malls. Reason is terrorism, we doubt each and every individual and think twice or thrice before talking to any stranger.

It happens with me too, I daily board a jeep from Iscon Temple(Abad) to Gandhinagar to reach at my company. I work at Gandhinagar as a Programmar Analyst. The jeep driver overload the jeeps to earn good amount without discriminating between ladies and gents. They talk rudely with ladies too.

But that day was different, While going back from Gandhinagar to Ahmedabad I had taken lift from my colleague and had get down few km before my destination. From there I sat in a rickshaw(shuttle). The rickshaw driver charges somewhere Rs. 5-7/- to all the passengers. We were 4 in total. Me and other 3 were middle aged men. After the first stop there was a lady who was waiting for some transportation. It was night time, as for ladies it was not a good time to be on road. On seeing that lady the driver stopped the auto, I thought that the driver will pass some vulgar comment or will play mischievies with her. But I was wrong; he asked her, to sit in the rickshaw but the auto was already full. So that fellow asked two passengers to sit in the front seat and asked that lady to sit comfortably in the back seat. I was a silent viewer of this whole scene. But was feeling extra happy that there are still good people alive on earth. And within few minutes my destination came. He asked me to pay Rs.5, but I gave him 5 bucks extra. So he asked me Why ? and I just told you are very kind hearted and so you deserve that. He gave a every good smiled and bow downed to me.
By giving away 5 extra bucks it didnt affected me at all. But that auto driver will keep helping others always.

That Smile of the driver was very memorable.

"Mother Knows..!!"

A 3 YEAR OLD

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me and my brother who is four years older than I am. I was maybe 3 and a half years old and had just recovered from an accident in which my arm had been broken among other injuries.

Someone had given me a little 'tea set' as a get-well gift and it was one of my favorite toys. Daddy was in the living room engrossed in the evening news and my brother was playing nearby in the living room when I brought Daddy a little cup of 'tea', which was just water. After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home. My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was 'just the cutest thing!!'

My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy and she watches him drink it up, then she says to him, 'Did it ever occur to you that the only place that baby can reach to get water is the toilet??'

Mothers know!!

--Took from a mail

"Thats why, I dont like to be punctual.."

It takes around 12hrs to reach at my native, from the place where I work i.e. Gandhinagar. So I always prefer a night journey. I board in bus from Ahmedabad, usually on Friday night and reach Mithapur next day early morning.

This Friday too, I had planned to go home. Mainly because we had hired a Dog Trainer from Chennai.
So the story started from there, we had to give him to-and-fro Air Tickets upto Ahmedabad and from Ahmedabad he had bus. I was the one who had to manage for the Taxi and pick-up service from Airport to Karnavati Club-Ahmedabad from where he had to catch Eagle Travels.

Luckily, in the morning when going to office I saw an Indica with Taxi passing under my flats and managaed to book one for Mr. J. Rangarajan(Dog Trainer). Things were somehow going easy and fine with me. His flight was suppose to land at 13:30 hrs and he had to catch the bus to Rajkot, everything went as per the plans.

Next was his train on the same day from Rajkot @ 7:00pm. All the timings were perfect and bus was also punctual enough to make him reach at Rajkot Railway Station on time.
I had booked train tickets well in advance via internet. The train was of evening 7 but to be on safer side, we had also booked tickets for him in night 10:00pm, if incase he misses the earlier train.

As he was on time, he went to the station and showed the printed copy of ticket at inquiry to know the platform number. And inturn the inquiry fellow told him that the tickets are of morning 7:00am train. He was shocked to hear that. The whole-sole culprit of this mistake was me, as I understood 7:00 as evening 7:00, whereas the fact is that Railway always shows train timing in 24hrs format.
This was just the initial part, as we had also booked tickets in the night train, so there weren't much problems.

On the other hand I had office on friday till 7:00pm. I take a jeep to reach Ahmedabad. I had planned to get ready on time and reach at the bus stand so that I dont have to hurry as usual. When I reached at my flat, there was a big lock. Thats very normal, all of us have our own key, so there was nothing much to worry. I inserted the key inside the lock and unlocked it. I also opened the latch, but the door was not opening. I tried to push it hard, but was not able to open it.

I thought there might be someone sleeping inside, so I knocked it very hard. But no one responded.

While coming upstairs I had meet my servant and his words came to my mind. When he meet me downstairs he told me, "I haved cleaned the room perfectly". Those words made me more tensed. Those words had now, a total different meaning in my mind, "I have cleaned the room perfectly, you wont find anything inside, etc." So I rushed to the staircases to climb down without waiting for the lift to come. And I saw my servant standing there only. I started interrogating, and came to know that there was one of my roommate present when he had cleaned the room. So I took a deep breath and got bit relaxed.

I called to all roommates to confirm who was present. Hitesh, was present at room and he was the one who had locked the room last. Now the mystery got resolved, as we also have a key-lock directly fixed on the door which we never use, but somehow that had got activated so by just slaming the door it had got locked from inside. Worst part, the keys were inside..!!!

I didnt cared much, as I was living to Mithapur(my native) that night, and all the things which were needed like, Digicam-Datacable-charger, jacket and cap, etc was with me in my office bag. Also the new purchased 8gb memory card, which was exclusively purchased to shoot the training for my pet was with me in my office bag.

But on the other hand there were other roommates also, who had to open/break the door anyhow in order to sleep at night. So we planned to call a key-maker. He also took the situation for granted and charged us Rs. 500/-. Hearing so much we were shocked, as that much is not worth to make a duplicate key. And also most of us were not convinced. So we planned to climb in our flat from the window, and we luckily succeeded.

There was a big Haaaash..as we had saved 500 bucks. Still I had bus after 2 hrs, so I packed my luggage calmly, I shifted all the things to my other bag and left for Bus stand before 45mins. This was the first time in my life, that I reached so early. I was also shocked to see myself punctual.

I have formed a habit that without any sort of pressure on me, I never do anything perfectlly. Today also I had reached early to bus stand, and my sub conscious mind had an intuition that I might be still forgeting something very important. But wasnt able to recall as I was not in tension or under pressure. Bus came, I sat and then realised that the most important 8gb card which was must for recording of Dog-training was left at home..

Got good scolding from Malay, my elder bro; firstly for booking wrong ticket than not having good management for Door-locking system and last but not the least his 8gb memory stick, which was still lying at my flat..

The reason for all this was just that, I was punctal..!!
And thats why, I dont like to be punctual..


Regards
UmanG

"Its not that all weekends are lucky..!!"

It was the friday night, when i came back to my flat after doing lot of coding at my office. Usually fridays are like that only..
On the way back to my flat, I had thought to go to bed early so that I can enjoy more on weekends. On reaching at my flat, friends had planned to go for a movie in the night show.

Out of us, there was one guy Hitesh Patel(name to be remembered) who was not able to join us for movie as he had to stay at office till late night. We all finished our dinner, and had rushed to the theatre well in advance as "Rock On" was released that day and we had heard that its a hit so might be the show is housefull.


Things were going on fine, as we got the tickets in exact middle of the hall, with nice NIFD(Fashion Designing Institute) girls around us. Also the movie was worth watching..

We reached at flat, at midnight after roaming aruond at night. In the middle of the movie, we had got a call from Hitesh(who had not joined us for movie as he had work at office and had came back to flat bit late) to confirm at what time we will be back, so that he can keep the door open for us and can go to sleep peacefully.

We all were very much tired and went directly to sleep after entering the flat, without even washing our face or legs as water stops coming after 10pm. Water starts coming every morning at early 6:00am. And as usual, it came the next day too. But this morning was very different, because at night HITESH had kept the taps open(by mistake). And water flow in the pipelines starts in the morning, with which; firstly the bathroom got washed..:-), after that the bathroom gutter got blocked and the water entered the room. The room slowly slowly got full of water, the worst part was, there were 2 laptops lying on the floor, one desktop system, the modem of internet, few clothes, two bedding(one on which I was sleeping) everything was literary floating. I too realised the coldness of water, but I was enjoying thinking that I am seeing some dream..Than slowly water entered the main hall and from there the next room. One other roommate was awake, as he was reading for his Oracle certification and he visualised the scene and gone mad. He woke me up, and I was like started using those typical MC BC words. My reaction was obvious, if someone wakes you up on weekends and that too at 6:30 in the morning....I was like, what the fuck man, why me..??

But it should me, as I was the one floating on water with my bed under me. Seeing that, we fainted as we didnt knew what to do and from where to start. Then we saw the laptops..!! We picked all the costly things and kept it at a safe distance, and woke up other roommates, and cleaned up all the water filled roooms.

The best part was, Hitesh at the very moment accpeted that it might be his carelessness or else he knew he would be the only one who would have to clean the roooms and drained all the water..!!


You see, things are not always good..Like my these weekends..!!!

But the experience was worth.


Regards
UmanG