Riding on the Bus

I take the bus back and forth these days. Yesterday something pricelessly sweet happened. Normally I glint and glare and keep a dead-pan expression on my face although I do greet the bus-driver and he greets me with a cheery hello and so on. And as far as I have observed (and Guha when he was here is the one who got me communicating with bus-drivers although I can never be quite as garrulous as he used to be) - the greetings are genuine. One bus-driver indeed had remarked that it was always a pleasure to see Guha or me because we always smiled and said 'hello, how are you doing?' The young bus-driver who told me so was a young girl herself (younger than I am for sure) and she was so breathless when she told me the same and more - about how rude some of the passengers were - I would have tried giving her a warm hug if I could have.

Anyway, yesterday I was somewhat distracted while on the bus. Thinking about this and that although I had noticed that it was a "toddler day". So these very young children are taken to the public library some days of the week by, what I think, are basically rather elderly and somewhat portly old women. Who takes care of whom, is a good question. They're a lovely bunch - that's for sure but most of the times I simply glance and look away. Yesterday was no different at the beginning. I was lost in my thoughts and at some point the bus came to a halt in front of the public library. At some point jostled out of my thoughts I looked up to hear one of the elderly women trying to tell one of the little girls to keep walking. Now something needs to be said. The bus was completely empty apart from the three women, the brood of little children and me. And the bus has some stairs towards the back. When I looked up a strange sight greeted my eyes. There were these young children all standing like darling little lambs. Right at the front of this standing queue was a little girl dressed in pink pants and a pink jersey and she was just standing there, waiting. The rest of the kids were also just standing there. The elderly women were unable to move ahead of the kids. There was no space and no amount of coaxing the little girl had gotten her to budge and walk on through the length of the bus. I smiled in my head very broadly. It was like they were little children for sure....but like little lambs. I got up from my seat without thinking and smiling at the little girl in pink, I took her hand and said, "Come along. Come along. Keep walking and you'll see that the rest of them will be following you." And she let me take her little hand in mine and sure enough the entire brood of little kids started following the girl and me. The bus-driver was so grateful that I felt terribly embarrassed. I got off the bus and picked up the tiny tot and put her on the sidewalk and all the other kids followed (and no, I didn't pick up each kid and deposit her (they were all little girls yester') onto the sidewalk! That would have been most time-consuming and quite unnecessary. They were very, very young - maybe 4/5 but were all quite capable of getting off from a bus, thank you!). The sidewalk was a tad slippery and so I kept a watch on the kids. And of course the three women were gushing their kind thanks and I was smiling gently and feeling terribly embarrassed or a bit at any rate but saying, "Oh, it was my pleasure. Really." The bus-driver thanked me again and once before I got off the bus and I grinned cheerily and got off. Back to thinking furiously and reading and pondering on other matters but it was a lovely little incident that filled my heart for those moments for me....

I remember a friend telling me that I could write about life here but I didn't know what to write about....this seems to be something lovely enough...

That's the post for today.