Quest for the best (book store)

On one of the Saturdays I decided to bear the Delhi heat and go looking for the best book stores that could be..I searched the Internet and googled for a while to shortlist a few recommendations and shortlisted on the 5-must sees in Delhi as far as book lovers' paradise was concerned.

Since two out of the five were in Connaught Place, I decided to start my tour from the legendary Rajiv Chowk as it is being called especially after Delhi Metro’s success.

As I was searching for the first store on my list, I decided to hop into every book store that I was passing by. My first stop was the Galgotia Book shop – 30 years old and a name many book lovers from my parents’ generation could quote however in spite of the fact that I being a regular at least 6 years back, personally could not remember ever visiting this shop. The moment I entered I loved the feel of it. There were rows and rows of books from the floor to the ceiling and each of the linear rooms would lead to others. It felt like a never ending chain of books. Though a book aficionado’s paradise, it was an unambiguous observation that the shop was on its path to dilapidation. There was dust on the books; the racks were old, the walls unpainted and Mr. Galgotia himself too lackadaisical to answer my barrage of questions on the history of this legacy his father had left him. The shop is a relic and can be beautifully restored because of the sheer abundance of books and the history that it has. Right in the heart of CP, Galgotia’s is lucratively located however with inventory costs and about a crore unsold books (figures quoted by Mr. Galgotia himself) along with dithering margins, it seemed to be struggling and a silly parameter to support my observation was that the shop was not even air-conditioned. As a by-stander who has absolutely no real clue about what could be the raison d'être for the circumstances the shop is in, I would still want to drop in an advice or two. The shop has a brand and a huge estate which is rare in these times that too in the hub of commercial retail and one has to cash in on these assets. The competition is killing and one has to re-invent and start branding what you have rather than letting the prodigy slither away into anonymity.

After Galgotia’s I dipped in & out of several bookshops. Most of them were neatly stacked and huge and all this while I was looking for bookworm at B29. I went into what I thought was B28 and then straight to B30, somehow Bookworm remained elusive. Tired & sweaty I entered a shop to ask for directions. The shop was lit with bulbs and the beautiful yellow created a warm and serene flush all around, the wall was peeling and was patched up with cardboard at places and the alluring hand-made paper stationery dusty. I walk in to meet this extremely graceful & smart lady who introduced herself as Mrs. Nath and that’s when I realized I had entered Nath Brothers. A name all baby boomers would recognize as Nath Brothers was the ‘it-shop’ about 20 years ago. Mrs. Nath reminisced how they were the talk of the town for gifts & cards. She even indicated how Mr. Anil of Archies’ would come to her for advice considering the name that she had then. Somehow it was difficult for me to fit in the glorious picture she was creating of her past with her present stage of almost dilapidation. I cross-checked with my parents and a few others later in the day and all of them validated what Mrs. Nath had enlightened me about. Coming back to the point I asked her where Bookworm was and she quite as a matter of fact said it had been closed down! Phew, all that walk in the summer for a shop that had been closed down! On asking her why it could have been closed down, she sweepingly looked at her own shop and asked, couldn’t I guess for myself? The metro construction, uprooting of pavements, construction boards covering the shops prior to the CWG and dearth of customers especially foreign tourists afterwards has contributed to the forlorn state of affairs in CP. It shocked me to watch all these historic commercial houses going to the walls that too in a prime location.

I spent some more time talking to Mrs. Nath which was definitely the highlight of my day. I was quizzing her why all book stores in CP look so decrepit and that’s when she commented on the Jain Book Depot and how well it was doing. Mr. Galgotia too with a discerning look had mentioned that it was the only book store that was doing well in CP. He also mentioned Om Book Shop which was also on my list of top 5 which uses competitive pricing & discounts to acquire a steady stream of customers. In fact, later during the day while searching for Midland, CP I was repeatedly told to go to Jain Book store if I needed to buy books. They apparently are genies as far as books are concerned – you name a book and they have it. Though not on my agenda, I decided to go to Jain Book store to see for myself the most successful book store in CP. Amongst the rubble of books, a sea of people and innumerous help assisting you look around a shop which didn’t seem big enough to store every book you may wish for and I was unable to define what made this shop flourish.

Midland was like the lost city – Atlantis. I had the address in my hand and so many people to ask for directions who kept guiding me back to Jain Book shop. Alas, I could not find Midland. And that’s when lured by the lights and the most exquisite chandeliers I had ever seen I entered Kapoor’s. They seemed clueless about the bookshop which was a little comical considering they had been at the same location for 30 years and Midland was supposedly their neighbour. While I was marveling at their brilliance of their merchandise, they too had a gloomy story to tell of zilch customers, bad parking & how the construction at CP hampered their business. When we questioned their oldest employee Umashankar on the whereabouts of Midland, he mentioned that their branch in CP had been closed down.

Feeling slightly cheerless, I decided to go to the next site on my schema – Basant Lok MarketJ, hoping it would be more thrilling and it definitely was. The two shops in my mind were Facts & Fiction and the Om Book Store. Out of all the stores on my agenda, Fact & Fiction was the most admired on the Internet and had only one branch in Delhi. I walk into Fact & Fiction and it is the most compact, cute little bookshop with chimes on the door to announce my entry. I almost travelled back a few decades; however the range of subjects and the discussions reverberating in that shop brought me back to reality (an appealing oneJ). I like Fact & Fiction. Period. I had a fascinating tête-à-tête with Mr. Ajit - the owner, his son and an intriguing customer who seemed like a regular. I browsed through the books he had kept and they were an interesting lot and what impressed me was that finally I meet a book shop owner who could talk about books, discuss the merits & de-merits of an author and offer logical critique! Even though Mr. Ajit hinted at low margins and it not being the most profitable business he would have wanted to do, I could feel that he was happy & proud to be sitting at Fact & Fiction. And the most optimistic point was that the shop actually seemed to be doing well.

The last on my list for the day was Om Book Shop which throughout the day had sounded more of a business house of books. I liked Om Book store at Basant Lok and at the DLF Mall. Of Course the veritable 10% discount was quite endearing especially on “New Arrivals”. I spoke to Mr. Amar, who has been working at the store in Basant lok for the last 10 years and felt good to see the pride in his voice while telling me that about 200 customers come in everyday and about 100 of them pick up something before they leave. It was not too difficult to understand why there was 50% conversion; other than the discounts, the shop was beautifully catalogued. I thought of a book and I could easily find it. Each book was laid out simply and as a shopper who has come with a list and an intention to pick up some specifics, this shop would be a paradise for you.

I visited quite a few other bookstores too which haven’t been mentioned, the story was same everywhere. Not many in this age like to read books and when they do many of them pick up pirated books from the footpath. The margins are diminutive and with the coming of Kindle & I-Pad, the customers shrinking. I felt the key to having a successful bookstore other than inventory management; branding, cataloging and good business sense is to have a passion for reading and for books. Zeal and enthusiasm are important ingredients for a recipe created for success whether it is managing a book shop or whatever else you want to accomplish.

The Trek to Hell..Part III

So as I was saying, the best part was yet to come..Eventually we dis decide to go into the tent...The moment i entered i realised there was no place we could sit, the floor of the tent being already wet. I took bag, God knows who's and after placing a plastic wrap on it sat down. It was poky, hard and uncomfortable and however uncomfortable i was i thought we will settle down in some time. The other tents were up and i was actually hoping that I could even sit in another dryer one. Basically, I was being too optimistic. We were joined by another two co-trekkers and there were four of us, trying to get comfortable by sitting on soaking wet bags with little back rest in that small little tent with water leaking in from a few infinitesimal holes in that tent. The smiles were still there on our faces, we were chatting and trying to get comfortable with some banal conversation when something hot poked me from beneath the ground accompanied by a faint flash like that of a low-battery camera. I looked around and suddenly there was commotion not only in our tent but also outside. We had been STRUCK by lightening. Yes, it is was a lightening. Of course with that continuous pouring and saturated sodden clothes that they had become, our last hope of surviving the ordeal decided to leave us and go. Someone was shouting that we should go back and some knew that we would die. I looked around at the faces of the last people that I would see in this life of mine, yet the magnanimity of the situation had not really assailed my mind else I would surely have panicked. We continued to play cards, somehow a favourite for me but just couldn't concentrate, I tried to have a conversation, again sometime i am looking towards and couldn't manage coherent sentences and i tried to tell myself that we will come out of it alive. Some one's tent had flown away and the hubbub outside told me that the others were not doing too good too. There were a few light hearted attempts at humour and games but all it got to our faces were a wry smile and then we resumed our gloomy expressions. It was 4pm and we had the whole day and night to be tolerated in front of us. There was still some light when someone in our melancholic tent spotted a leech on the thin canvas of our tent. That was when we knew we were gone . Walking amongst leeches all through the Day, when we knew those slimes could only access our legs and be chucked out with relative effortlessness was nothing compared to the feeling of one of those black eerie insect roaming around freely in our tent, not visible to our naked eye and sucking our blood liberally. At that point I decided to freak out. Yes, this was too much, I could survive continuous rain, being drenched and a gloomy tent, however now the state of affairs had reached the circumference of my patience.

By the way did i mention that we were soaking wet from the bottom,and i could feel the my socks inside my shoes getting juicier with water and was it cold or was it cold. So in that cocoon of wetness & cold, i suddenly decided i had to pee. Yes, i surely did have to with absolutely no alternative. My co-sufferers and co-inhabitants of the soggy tent refused to open the tent fearing a shower of leeches getting in and if not I inviting them over when i come back. But nature won over man gain...and i stepped out....It was wet and beautiful, if i wasn't feeling so dreadful I might even have spoken a word or two about the scenic pleasures for the eyes...mind you only the eyes. I did the deed and came back. before the tent would open, i was asked "leech check done", i checked my shoes, myself all over along with my companion who too had decided to come out for the leeches and when we were sure we were "clean" we stepped in...

Somehow life becomes easier when u know your insides are at peace ...now the only drudgery was that we were getting wetter. Over the next two hours we made small attempts to be comfortable in between the vain attempts of one of the soggy members in the tent to get all of us to sleep. But as it got darker...our spirits got feebler and the fear of getting wrinkled in the water started seeping in along with the apprehension of the surreptitious entry of the leeches at night.

Thankfully we had a torch that fortunately was not dependent on batteries that kept us sane. Every few minutes, a leech check was done to ensure there were no creepy-crawlies squirming to get into our tent. At eight someone decided that we should sleep and we finally listened...I think we did sleep...

tried to imagine i was on a bed...of water...that it was not very cold, that we were not sodden by the compound molecules of water & oxygen and that i was not getting shrivelled with too much water. I knew we had walked a lot and the fear of getting cramps or some permanant disease was high.

We slept...with mushy sleeping bags below us, then above us, then away from us, then onn top again and so on...the torch leading us through the dark dripping night. And finally there was light:)

The Trek to hell...Part II

Well, we are still on Day Zero..but the best part of the journey is yet to begin...we see a board that says "Drinking water" on an inconspicuous yellow board half covered by the long fingered leaves. It points towards an extremely steep path, so deep that we cannot see the end where it might lead us. We split, with the guys who are really tired taking a break near the board guarding our now dropped burdensome bags and the others carry those empty plastic bottles in the hope of finding "spring" water! So we start walking down those messy rocks...still looking out for leeches, however getting thrilled with every step as we cannot see a single one...Somewhere during that 10 min sprint downwards the whole aura changed, the bright sunny day suddenly hid behind a wind that had engulfed us, cooling us down and for some time we were so mesmerized by the hope of water that we forgot that we were thirsty. We reached a huge flat rock with trickling rivulets of water -pure naturally distilled water and yelped out gleeful laughter..this was so exciting, we cupped our hands to fill in the water taking small but amazingly refreshing gulps. The to and fro of our hand from the dribbling water and our mouths was unstoppable, and the countless minuscule swigs couldn't quench the thirst that had swollen up in our minds. We tried to fill in water into our bottles, but somehow mankind had not designed plastic soft-drink bottles to incarcerate that water seeping from the mysterious source. We twisted them and forced the mouth between the rocks, but somehow we just couldn't manage more than a few drops into the bottle. While we were struggling, not knowing how to capture that life giving fluid, a few others dared to go further at the end of that almost vertical rock. In a few split seconds we could gear a commotion of relief that there was water and that too not surreptitiously sticking to the rock but actually flowing freely and into our bottles...After that there was literally no looking back; with us climbing back with a new quota of energy , a feeling of all being well and the windy aura uplifting our moods further. We reached the top back to our "Drinking water" sign and sent another set of people with more empty of the plastic urns to fill with that refreshing almost tasty spring water.

Like our fates the day had decided to change its temperament. We were engulfed in a cloud with mist and clear breeze around us. The stoves were taken out and a flat patch had to be found to settle it. Somehow it seemed that the stove decided to become wriggly and not settle anywhere. Finally we did manage to stabilize it and that's when we realised that the wind our friend was a comrade when you wanted to light a stove. For 15 minutes, all the cooks who really wanted to have their broth applied their brains and finally after an amalgamation of a few half baked ideas we set the water boiling to cook ALL THAT 'MAGGI' that we had been bearing on our fragile backs. The wait for food dependent on a windy fire was impatient and hungry. The first bite of that Slurpee soupy set of noodles slipping through the plastic forks was divine. Relishing second helpings along with relieved laughter settled amongst the conversation and the good humour the turn of events had brought us to. Those trickling streams of water had truly given us back our life, strengths & spirits.

Well, I think I forgot to mention that we were still our usual .25 kms away from our destination, but the rested food in our bellies and the sudden attachment with the patch that had given us back our hopes dallied us from end. An already set up tent tempted the other tents too out of their bags willing them to get set up. However good sense prevailed and we decided to finish the last leg of the climb. It was an easy leech free climb preceded by the chaotic re-packing of the already opened tent which resulted in a few blame games when a small part of the tent broke. We had just begun the last ascent when the cloud that had engulfed us decided to spray us with it's shower. By the time we reached the top, half of us were half wet. There was frantic searching for tents, the rods and the components that would help in setting it up. One was quickly assembled and the two girls, me and another one were advised to get in from getting soaked further. The bags were put inside and when i peeped into that tent,I actually refused saying it was just to wet and that i will not be able to sit in it. It's better to stay out, we were wet anyway and we can always change our clothes. After all, we had carried additional sets of clothes with us. How could we know then that those were the driest moments for next few hours of our trek. The horrifying Part III was yet to begin making our journey till now seem like a smooth ride...

The Trek...to Hell:)

Ages, Ages & Ages...that's how long it has been since I have felt like writing...it's just that nothing very interesting was happening and neither was the mind clamouring for anything new...trying to adjust to some new work and finding a place for myself had dried up most of my creative juices and well the writer's block was just around the corner too...

Well 6 months back i had made a few resolutions and going back to it...i realised that if I had to give myself a rating on how well 'm doing it would be quite average...however this weekend was a bonus - a feather in the cap for me..i actually did an amazing trek...in fact supposedly one of the most difficult ones in Karnataka...

Well it was definitely difficult, literally breathtaking and quite an adventure:) It had all the elements of a masala bollywood trek with the thrills of - 'm i going to come out of it alive to the action when we stepped into the "leech" territory and the solemn silence of an art film when we were coming down 5 kms through grassy hills with a view that could only be written about in books...

Getting down to basic facts, we went for a trek to Pushpagiri...or kumara parvatham...it's a trek usually not done by amateurs like me, however not knowing what was in store i started on the arduous journey for the next two days not knowing at that time what was in store

Day 0: a happy go lucky group who hardly know each other, high on life and maybe a few other things ;) started in a hi-speed tempo, on a mission of punctuality and of ensuring we reach wherever we had to as planned & scheduled...The night is cold...but we are having fun...slightly unsure of what the plan really is..with no traffic on the road we zoom ahead ..We reach madikerri at 4am to realise that it's too early to freshen up [:-)not everyone would get that] and force the not too awake driver to take us to somwarpet...we freshen up, get scrubbed and cleaned, all jettisoned to go for a trek...our bags are packed with maggi and maggi and some more maggi...of course there were some brave enough to carry a gas stove, tents and any other burdensome stuff that one can think of on their backs..

Day 1:

Part 1 - Day 1 begins: with those sacks on our backs, we are left at a place where we start the trek..its sunny and chirpy...with instructions that the first part of the trek is the easiest...so we aren't too worried. Well we should have been, since the first one hour was difficult with us huffing & puffing on a dry track, with bags that have already started feeling heavy and this was supposed to be EASY? In about 40 mins we reach the Forest Office(APC), where we have these seemingly innocent school like boards showing off the wild animals that we might encounter on the way - it said king cobras, leopards, panthers, elephants, wild dogs, TIGERS....(just think of all the carnivores that your mind can summon and they would all be there)..We didn't pay much attention, concentrating more on the two puppies playing and gearing up for the road ahead...We entered into the forest, extremely cool and shady full of trees on all sides. It was beautiful and comforting at the same time it blocked you from the outside world, ingraining the knowledge that we would be all alone once we start moving along further into the canopy of trees..Nature, the sun streaming down through the leaves, the beautiful carpet made of leaves all made us slightly dumbstruck while we were still getting used to the jungle engulfing us. We were still adjusting to our environment, when someone saw the first leech on their shoes...or maybe it was on their ankle, that first encounter is something i 'm a little hazy about, but the fact is that we panicked. We screamed for salt, tried to remember in who's stuffed bag was it packed and how in the world are we supposed to get rid of it. Well, it was just the beginning, soon we had not one, not two, but maybe 3 to 4 leeches on every one's shoes creeping into our sock trying to quickly lap into our shoes through minute spaces. And every one who was around me was panicking with salt and sticks and hands trying to get rid of them...The first sign of blood on some one's ankle scared us and with every step we took our eyes scanned for those slippery slimy leeches attacking our shoes. After a much hurried walk of battling with the leeches, we finally reached a spot with lesser leeches and decided to take a leech check break. It was inside our socks, on our ankles, in our shoes - but only for a few, the others had come out of it almost unscathed. We had won our small little battle. We had walked for a full hour and when we checked how much we had covered we just couldn't believe it. Only 0.25 kms!??!!! We only had another 6.75 to go! That was when we realised what we could have signed for. Thoughts of creeping back into the town, abandoning the trip and running away from those slimy creepers were weakening the resolve to go on. And so we continued in spite of our brains urging us to turn back. I am sure there were few who would have felt excited by the events that they had encountered and were more than ready for the adventure, but my mind was feeble and it was unfathomable how much more would i be able to endure when I was already at my tenterhooks. And i was right, the torture and the fun had just begun. We were testing our physical strengths, when the climb suddenly became steep, and felt steeper because of not only the continuous onslaught of the leeches forever escaping into our sweaty shoes but also because of the ominous bags that we were carrying. Every time we felt we had accomplished a huge barrier we were pushed down in spirits by knowing that only another 0.25kms had been done. the sweat and the gruel became a part of the trek and somewhere in between the disheartening slow covering of distance and the natural difficulties that were dragging along with us, i started to like it. it tested our vigor, our mental strength and the ability to take on the climb as we went along. It was actually wonderful now that i think of it, even though at that point both my mind and body were screaming pain. the best portions were the steep rocks because of two reasons - they were much easier to climb except for the first one and secondly they were free of leeches. Just the thought of a patch without those blood sucking monsters was as pleasant as being invited to a king;s buffet at that joint of time. Now when i try to remember the details I realise that most of this is a blur of "I cant walk anymore", "I want to throw my bag or just leave it somewhere", "I can't believe the leeches can draw out so much out of me", "when will this helluva trek end", "would we ever reach", "I want wwahhhhterr"and so on. The toughest of the lot were struggling and the 'not so accustomed to this kind of activity' had almost given us. Well in simple words it was exceptionally tough. And somewhere in between the most essential item in our carry bags got over - H2O. With that single hope trickling away, we thought we would just have to turn back and endure the whole thing all over again. But like someone said "just when you are about to give us...you see some hope". there was a board which said "drinking water" and we left our bags at a huge steep rock and climbed down to see where was this source of water we were seeking...

For part 2...wait for the next entry:)

Call me old-fashioned..

Yes..Please call me old-fashioned I am one...and I just realized that drastically while watching Rahul Mahajan ka Swayamwar...what in the wold is that man doing on TV and really WHAT is he doing...Looking for brides is one thing but using girls for the lure of fame and marriage is another..Today, the show's been coming since morning and yes I have been watching it...4 to 5 episodes back to back...without blinking...but not without being shocked, outraged and exasperated. There is no episode, no scene wherein Rahul is not doing his chance pe dance. He kisses all the girls, lays down on their lap, holds hands, dances closely..and with much ease and appalling dignity. Well, you think Splitsvilla is shocking watch this show..Openly flirting and being way too touchy, downright creepy all in the name of looking for a bride..
So as I started call me old fashioned, but to me all this seems way over the top...Also, Rahul, the producers etc are not the only ones at fault in my view, it is also the girls who are willing to being projected as they are. When will we say, just because I want to be famous, an actress, a model or Mr Mahajan's wife I will not tolerate some guy touching me inappropriately on TV . Anyways why did so many girls line up to marry an ex-drug abuser(I am assuming the ex), an alleged wife abuser, someone who has built his new found TV career on the sympathy garnered after his father's demise?
The question is to what extent are we willing to go to achieve our dreams & ambitions?
P.S: This is not a promotion event for that advertently idiotic and shocking show..I would still say do not torture yourself by watching it.

Changing the World Part -3

Someone told me that to build up momentum, I need to write everyday. If I really want to change the world I need to change the duration between two of my blogs too. I cannot promise writing everyday, however since I logged in today too, I can write on two consecutive days at least for now.

So you guys must have become somewhat familiar with the kind of propaganda I might be promoting. Yes it is changing the world by changing ourselves. So here I come with one more doctrine that I sincerely follow:

"Waste no Food"...

I work in a large company with some 5 to 6 huge food courts each harbouring about 8 to 10 caterers with some 10K people eating there every single day (off course on weekends it's much less, we get them off). And every helping that we get is enough to feed some 100 anorexic models. Yes the quantity of food that we get is a lot and at some counters we can serve ourselves. However in both the cases we tend to go overboard with the food. It doesn't matter that the daal is of an obnoxious colour or the gobhi is floating in oil or that we don't even like the coconut chutney they serve, we fill it till the brim maneuvering the plate and ourselves to our friendly team with similar looking colourful plates. And then in all that office gossip, catching up on the grapevine, complaining about how bad the food has become, we somehow forget what we were thinking when we took so much food and then at the end of eating what we like, we simply go and throw the food. Yes on an average 70% throw 30% of the food. This is just the cafeteria that too in an office.

Move out, closer to the weekend and Bangalore - the garden city has only one mode of entertainment - that's eating out. It's definitely going out, ordering lots , trying out new tidbits of food as well as the news and then leaving it all to waste. Why did we order so much? Simple - we have the money to order all the food we can and then we have figures to watch so we can't always shove all of it down our throats.

Then let's move into our household - bread that craves for fungus because a new loaf was bought, old vegetables that were bought but out of laziness never cooked, delicacies that were supposed to be eaten but actually forgotten after lying in the the cold (fridge) for some weeks...why waste food here too.

It's only because it has not hit us yet. Just think about people who die out of starvation, little kids with malformed bodies because they never got enough food, mothers not being able to feed their Young ones because their share of nutrition was thrown in dustbins in offices & restaurants.

The next time you throw food - just "think", "picture" and "think" again. It won't use much of your brain cells, just maybe save some food:)

Changing the World Part -2

So here 'm back with the "Change the world" Flag high:). Hope you guys followed the three mantras:
1. Save electricity
2. Save water
3. Don't throw stuff anywhere but in a dustbin!
The theme this time is to "do something". Don't you sometimes feel life has no meaning, but only a superficial layer of tweets and Levi's jeans? Yes, I feel it too, so it's time we all did something and scratch and explore the more meaningful, kinder layers inside all of us.Start doing things for others....
When was the last time you did someone a favour -just like that without thinking of any returns...just gave away money because they needed it, or thanked someone genuinely or complimented someone you just don't like only because they deserve the compliment. Hmmm...'m sure most of you did it...a few examples I saw in the last few days that made me think there are still good people around...
My friend recently adopted a girl child - not because she can't have kids but only because she wanted to improve some one's life by giving it a comfortable home.The way she plays with the child, is managing work and her family along with this new angel that has entered her life surprises me, that there are still some people around who really care and even if they do not change the world they definitely change the world for that particular baby girl. Wish both the mother and her new daughter the very best in life.
Another incident happened on a train. It was an early morning train with surprisingly a lot of old gentlemen, maybe retired defence officers (I am just guessing) travelling in the same coach as me. Just after it crossed a particular station, a lady started screaming that she had lost her bag and someone must have taken it along with them when the train stopped at the last station. Usually in such a case passengers just look around, talk and start checking their own bags in case their stuff too might not be missing. In this case, there was sudden action, with one old gentlemen trying to calm down the lady reassuring her that they will all help her find her bag, another one rushed to look for the TT so that a message could be sent to the station master about the missing bag that could be at the last station and the third one pulled the chain. (The train didn't stop in spite of pulling the chain but that's another story). Everyone in the train looking at the three gentlemen well over 70 years helping the lady started looking around and someone finally or should I say actually found the bag. The tension was relieved, all 50 passengers were smiling at each other looking around and there was general bonhomie in this cluster of strangers. One of them asked the gentleman who had pulled the chain that what if the train had stopped, would he have paid the fine or would have made that lady pay it. He said, he would have paid it if he had to if the explanation wouldn't have worked, but another lady cut in and said, well all of us would have paid it, emphasising that it wouldn't have amounted to more than a small amount per person. And you know what I am sure if we would have been fined, the way the atmosphere was everyone together would have paid the fine.
In this era where we see people dying on the road and just walk ahead to our colleges and offices, such gestures even though minor touched my heart.
Both are small incidents that show that your life won't always give you opportunities to do things, you have got to grab it by its horns and rather than wait for the right moment just do things that you feel will make a difference no matter how big or small to at least someone.
hmmm...so what is it that I will do other than preaching? One compliment to someone every day, help someone at the office without any expectations and feeding stray dogs in front of my house:)
Bye for now...see you next time...with changing the world part -3