Small Acts of Kindness

The day had all the makings of a perfect bad day.

There was an important meeting at workplace and I still had some work to do on my presentation. The pervious night I decided to reach office a bit early, to be well prepared. And guess what! I woke up late in the morning and that too after a call from the boss who informed that the meeting was preponed by a few hours.baddaysmileyface

The tea on the gas stove spilled over as I was a few seconds late in turning it off. I watched the mess on the stove with stunned silence as the tea flowed into small rivulets on the clean kitchen slab. Hurriedly, I cleaned the mess and left home only to realize a few minutes later that I had left the home keys inside. URGH! The bane of self-locking doors. Action plans to get the door to open in the evening had started taking shape and form in my head.

Just as I stepped out of the lift, a boy dressed in school uniform who had forgotten something, I presumed, as he was rushing back into the lift and didn’t want to miss the lift, banged hard into me. I fell on the ground and along with me the lunch containers fell out of the bag and rolled into 3 different directions and my laptop bag landed with a thud too. He mouthed a lot of apologies but didn’t bother to help me pick my stuff. He was determined not to miss the lift. I picked myself up as the eyes brimmed with angry tears.

Thankfully, I found an auto soon and sat as my head started processing the negative thoughts, the self pity along with how unfair the life was… This time, I let the tears slide down by eyes and continued to brood as the auto driver navigated through the narrow roads and by-lanes.

Some times later, the auto driver addressed me and said, “Madam ji”. It broke my reverie and I quickly wiped the lone tear and looked at him in the rear view mirror. Our eyes met in the rear view mirror and he said, “I don’t know what your problems are, but please, believe me when I tell you that – everything will be okay. We all have bad days and struggles in life. But always remember that it will be okay.”

And then he smiled, his eyes shone of compassion and understanding.

At that very moment, the clouds of gloom, the negative mental baggage just vanished. I realized that all the events of the morning which I thought were the beginning of a bad day, in reality were so very trivial and small.

I realized I was overreacting so much. I realized that it was a sign by the Universe. A message was sent to me through this auto driver to understand, to realize, to take action…

I smiled. It was my first smile of the day. But it would not be my last, as from that moment on my entire day had turned around. 738bd8142bcd37933814782f676ce045

Perhaps without even knowing it, this benevolent auto-driver had contributed in transforming my day. His few words of compassion and understanding, became an important learning for me, for life.

I realized that a smile, a warm hug, a kind word, a gentle touch… they all have the power to transform a day, a life.

When I remember what a few words and a smile of that driver did to me, it inspires me to become a kinder and a more considerate person. That man made a difference to my day that day. He helped me realize that small acts of kindness are never small. They may have undreamt of effects on the recipient.

Has a small act of kindness had an important effect on your life?

Linking it to Write Tribe Festival of Words – 3 : Day 5 : An Inspiring Story

writetribe_festival_words_3_zps4d291980