I have wonderful memories at my first job. Apart acquiring essential skills to survive in current competitive environment, I had an opportunity to meet some really great people – celebrities and otherwise.
One such person I had met, was a young mentally challenged girl. I use to pass this girl everyday outside Churchgate station on my way to work. This girl probably was in her teens then and use to stand outside the subway selling Pens, she was a roadside vendor, trying to make her daily living. The Showroom I use to work was just outside the subway and we use to loiter around the subway entrance during breaks.
I still remember the eve before Raksha-Bandhan day of 1996, it had been a high traffic evening for our showroom, when this girl walked into our swank showroom in her modest attire. Almost everyone in showroom were surprised to see her in the showroom, but no one seem to be bothered by her presence, it was probably because we had strange visitor in past, probably because we were located right opposite Churchgate station. Most of the time we would be polite with such individuals and other times we would use little forceful techniques to deter them away.
We had seen this girl many a times around the subway entrance, we knew she was not a trouble maker and the fact that everyone was attending to shoppers, so no one cared about her. She was just standing around and looking for something, she was definitely uncomfortable and so were all of us in showroom.
We had a very compassionate colleague among us, whom everyone in showroom respected. She was always ready to help others and attend to any walk-ins into showroom, while keeping her self-respect.
So our colleague decided to inquire with this girl and she had spent next 15-20 minutes talking to her. Our colleague soon discovered through her conversation that that this mentally challenged girl had a brother and her brother was learning computers and since the next day was Raksha-Bandhan, she wanted to gift him with something, which would help him do better with computers. She finally bought a box of floppy-diskette, which she could afford through the little saving she had and she insisted with her payment.
One such person I had met, was a young mentally challenged girl. I use to pass this girl everyday outside Churchgate station on my way to work. This girl probably was in her teens then and use to stand outside the subway selling Pens, she was a roadside vendor, trying to make her daily living. The Showroom I use to work was just outside the subway and we use to loiter around the subway entrance during breaks.
I still remember the eve before Raksha-Bandhan day of 1996, it had been a high traffic evening for our showroom, when this girl walked into our swank showroom in her modest attire. Almost everyone in showroom were surprised to see her in the showroom, but no one seem to be bothered by her presence, it was probably because we had strange visitor in past, probably because we were located right opposite Churchgate station. Most of the time we would be polite with such individuals and other times we would use little forceful techniques to deter them away.
We had seen this girl many a times around the subway entrance, we knew she was not a trouble maker and the fact that everyone was attending to shoppers, so no one cared about her. She was just standing around and looking for something, she was definitely uncomfortable and so were all of us in showroom.
We had a very compassionate colleague among us, whom everyone in showroom respected. She was always ready to help others and attend to any walk-ins into showroom, while keeping her self-respect.
So our colleague decided to inquire with this girl and she had spent next 15-20 minutes talking to her. Our colleague soon discovered through her conversation that that this mentally challenged girl had a brother and her brother was learning computers and since the next day was Raksha-Bandhan, she wanted to gift him with something, which would help him do better with computers. She finally bought a box of floppy-diskette, which she could afford through the little saving she had and she insisted with her payment.
Today when I read a advertisement asking brothers to gift their siblings fancy Cars and Mobile Phones, that little girl’s gift to her brother seems to be far more worthy.
3 comments:
Lovely post. Am reminded of a student of mine who bravely ventured into the staff room to tie me a Rakhi, last year.
:)
Very touching. You are right now a days things are different. I have posted one on my blog ... and its sad!
Cheers
@velu
Good it was just Rakhi.
@Dawn
Yes such incidents are reminders for to be thankful about the privileges we enjoy and they just teachs us to be humble.
I would differ with usage of your expression "Sad", I would say we are "unfortunate" that we have turned into "consumers" and we try to value relations with material gains.
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