Just an ordinary day, with an extraordinary learning.

A few months back while I was travelling in the local bus, coming back home at around 7-7:30 in the evening  after giving a really bad test on physics..just a few weeks before my 12^th boards. Climbing onto the bus, I was lucky enough to find a seat next to the window! I always had this thought  about how people travelling in a bus always wanted the window seat first, like the electrons, which always take the empty orbital first before pairing up according to Pauli’s principle. Okay, enough of physics. Coming back, I plugged in my earphones on full volume because I didn’t want to listen to a fight happening between two women fighting over something related to what happened when they were climbing up in the bus. I think one of those women non-intentionally pushed the other woman and she got angry or something. I was bobbing my head to Blink 182’s I Miss You, not realizing that this little girl came up and sat next to me and was constantly smiling at me.  Upon realizing this, I smiled slightly and then hurriedly stared out the window! (I am not used to people staring and smiling at me.) A moment later, she tugged on my shirt which forced me to take my earphones off. The smile on her face was still there, and she asked me for my name. I said, “Samridhi Maheshwari, What’s yours? ( in such pathetic Marathi that the teacher who taught me Marathi in school would faint after listening to it!) I don’t remember what her name was but I do know that she is 10 years old and attends a Marathi medium school somewhere nearby.. She asked me about my age, school and all normal questions. Till then her stop had come. Her mom, dad and sister were also present, and as they were getting down she took her sister’s hand and helped her get down the bus. Left me puzzled for a while before realizing that her elder sister was blind.As the bus was departing for the next stop where I had to get down..I saw her motioning her sister as they walked, telling her about what is happening all around and never letting go of her hand. And not even once did that smile vanish off her face.  It’s funny how a 10 year old could teach me so much about life and it isn’t the big things you do that matter, sometimes even the smallest acts of kindness can change a life. One of the most memorable bus rides, I’ll always remember this kid with her big smile and cheerful attitude.

As always, I’ll end with a quote again;

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." —Anne Frank.