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.
