Our Wiring

Yesterday, while on a casual journey on the bus, at some point, an old lady sat beside me. I was sitting in the middle of the three seater with my heavy bag on my lap. Like many others, she too drifted off to a mild sleep and lost her grip on the small phone she was holding in her hand. It was the brick-like old kind of Nokia phone, I guess. Anyways, as it hit the metal floor of the bus, it made pretty loud sound that grabbed the attention of another passenger and mine  as well as woke her up. She stood up to go bend and reach for the phone, but, as the bus took another sharp bend, she skid a bit and I held one of her arms as the other went to hold on to a support. The other passenger who had paid attention as well asked the old lady to take the seat and that he'd take it for her. But, as I could see that by stretching a little bit, I could easily reach for the phone than either of them. So, I did. I let heavy bag I've been holding in my lap from the beginning of the journey to touch the floor and bend and stretched, even dropping my own bottle, but finally picking up both her phone and  my bottle. As I was handing her phone back to her, an epiphany struck me.

I just recapped what had just  happened moments ago - when an opportunity to help another person, a total stranger, popped up,  I Iet go of the heavy baggage I was holding on to for so long and left my comfortable position to bend and stretch just so that I could do what I was able to do to "help" her without expecting anything in return.

Though some people might find it is too small a task to be worth discussing, I find it so mind-boggling. It was literally the visualisation of the basic lesson that so many wise people around the world in the present as well as the past have always preached and practised - it is in the service of others that we let go of the stress, troubles, memories and anxiety (holding on to which could only cause avoidable sufferings) and discover and experience the joy of generosity.

It is in the spending of the most basic non-redeemable commodities we have - time and energy- without any expectations of reciprocal actions that we experience it - the joy of generosity. Try it. Feel it. It's infectious. You'll want to keep doing it. That's our basic anthropological wiring. 😇
And, remember, at the end of the day, it's the little things that's going matter because that's where the big surprises are hidden-in places where most people will not even think about looking for!