Aga, I & the Moments of The Truth

While at client site, I had an opportunity to meet Aga.

Aga - a young, beautiful, charming lady who sat at the restaurant till. We exchanged smiles whenever we met; soon the smiles turned into conversations. Normally people would spend a minute or less to know the bill amount and transact. But for me, transactions were not only monetary therefore would never end in a minute. I stood there to know how her work was going, how her family was doing, when was her next trip to Poland where she belonged to etc etc. Sitting at the till, she would also enquire about my work, my wife, my family back in India, if I was missing my family etc etc. People standing behind me in the queue would at times also change tills. Friends who accompanied me for breakfast would keeping waiting until I finished my conversations with this charming lady. They often teased me because it was very unusual scene there, someone from India interacting with a young lady at the till that too when there was no direct business involved. Aga and I definitely had a bond – but of course not like they had imagined. We had had many Moments of The Truth which perhaps I couldn’t explain to all my friends. Few such Moments I thought of putting down.  

I had received Rakhies from sisters in India, and was wondering how I should tie those. Somehow I felt it would be quite boring to tie those by myself. I started to scan list of ladies I knew in my neighborhood, ladies who wouldn’t mind doing that and of course who’d value the bond. One particular name that flashed was Aga. Subscribing to the thought, I approached Aga and asked if she could meet me sometime during the day as I had some important task for her. She was surprised but gave me some slot when she would be at break. I reached as per the slot, carrying Rakhi and few chocolates in my hand. I started to explain her what was Rakhi festival, what tying of the thread signified etc. She was quite pleased to know that I thought so high of her, and wanted her to fulfill responsibility of a sister. But in a minute she said, ”Sorry” to me. Before I could interpret why so, she started to explain that they were not allowed to tie anything on their wrists while at work. I smiled as I realized that I had forgotten to tell her that it was I who needed to carry threads on the wrist, not her! I cleared the misunderstanding, and finally she tied a Rakhi to me. I gave her chocolates to share with others. I was happy to meet my “Universal Sister”.

An year passed on, it was Rakhi time again. It wasn’t so difficult this time to get her slot for the Thread festival. She tied Rakhi on my wrist. But in return this time, I had no gift to give to her. So I opened my wallet, and took out a 10 pound note and passed it to her. She refused to take the note despite many pressures from my side, and later asked “Are you my brother?”. I answered in a nod. “Will you give me what gift I want?”. Now this time she surprised me, but casually I said “Yes”. “Give a me a big smile, that is what I want in return” – my ears heard this statement in a second. I smiled, and looking at me she smiled. We hugged each other – Universal brother and Universal sister – The moment was of the Truth! I really admired how she embraced “my” culture, “my” festival despite her upbringing in “different” religion, “different” culture, “different” country. I learnt Universality from her.

In same year, on Aga’s birthday I sat on Facebook to wish her “Happy Birthday” . I typed it and was about to send when a thought clicked to me. Why not send wishes in Polish. She would love to see a message in her own language. Since I don’t know Polish, I took help of Google translator and sent her a message in Polish. During the day I also met at her work, and wished her birthday again. She didn’t talk of my wish on FB, so I also didn’t touch the topic. When I returned home and checked my FB messages, I saw there was a reply from Aga. I really got excited to unfold how she would have expressed her love to receive those wishes. But as soon as I opened her message, all excitement died off. Quite surprisingly she hadn’t expressed anything in particular for me using polish language but had simply written, “aapakaa bahut bahut dhanyavaad J”. Oh my God was my reaction – Another moment of the Truth! Looking at my Facebook profile, I kept thinking how easy it was to bridge differences of languages with mutual respect and love. Having lived in cities where people were so proud of their native languages, proud to the extent that they would even fight to prove superiority of their language, this incident was a reminder that love comes first. And wherever love comes first, the barriers created based on differences of regions, languages, religions etc automatically vanish.

Quite a time, I sincerely pray as the bollywood song goes, “…. Rab kare tujhko bhi pyaar ho jaaye”.  If only man would have understood the message of Love, our world would not witness the walls in minds of individuals due to differences in religion, region, nation, language, etc. This world itself would have become a Heaven.