I am in India for the last few days now. Yesterday morning as I was walking back from my younger brother's (Gopala) house to my elder brother's house, I challenged myself to smile at and talk to as many strangers. I naturally do this, but this time I wanted to extend my nature as an experiment and carefully note the reactions in me and the other person. In India usually it is a tough challenge to engage a stranger into a conversation, particularly, of the opposite sex. Smiling is hard too since people avoid eye contact. Within a few hundred yards, I came across a uniformed person of the city bus service standing near a restaurant. I struck up a conversation, he said he is a bus inspector. After some casual words, I offered to pay for coffee. He said he just had it. From his reaction, I knew he didn't expect this from a stranger. He seemed happy to have met me. I felt good of extending brotherly affection to a stranger.
Along the way, I met another ten-twelve year old boy pushing a a huge vending cart uphill. He had a bag of lemons that were in poor shape. They looked somewhat dry and probably would not fetch much of juice. I asked him if he needed my help in pushing the cart. He refused but was happy for the offer. He did something strange after words. He said he can push the cart faster than I can walk.
Then I came across two ladies (both probably muslims). One was wearing hijab. What was interesting was, one woman was holding an umbrella for both of them and there was no sun nor rain. I teased them saying that what exactly was the purpose of the umbrella. I was afraid that they would get mad. One woman (not wearing hijab) smiled at me.
I had a positive feeling about my non-obligatory encounters that I created. My hope is this would affect them also similarly.
Along the way, I met another ten-twelve year old boy pushing a a huge vending cart uphill. He had a bag of lemons that were in poor shape. They looked somewhat dry and probably would not fetch much of juice. I asked him if he needed my help in pushing the cart. He refused but was happy for the offer. He did something strange after words. He said he can push the cart faster than I can walk.
Then I came across two ladies (both probably muslims). One was wearing hijab. What was interesting was, one woman was holding an umbrella for both of them and there was no sun nor rain. I teased them saying that what exactly was the purpose of the umbrella. I was afraid that they would get mad. One woman (not wearing hijab) smiled at me.
I had a positive feeling about my non-obligatory encounters that I created. My hope is this would affect them also similarly.
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