Has it ever happened with anyone else that we meet some person, get charmed by their talk and later find out about the various interesting things they've done in their life? I recently got to meet one such person. She works with National Geographic Traveller, India magazine. We hit it off instantly over books, the 90's, social structure and so many varied topics. In fact, we are members of the same library. I felt so good to meet such a wonderful person after a long time. That doesn't mean, I don't meet nice/good people. I do. It's just that sometimes I take so much time in knowing a person that it feels like I like solitude around me, which is not true. I am a people person. Okay, maybe not an out-going people person, but I love meeting people who initiate and carry great conversation that more or less matches my enthusiasm. I rarely open up before strangers. Some strangers just don't seem like one. Talking to them makes us feel like we've known them for ages.
Such people are rare, in today's age. Or, they always are in all eras. Connecting with people seems like such a choosy thing to do. Like we choose each thing in our life carefully, but not necessarily pay attention to every person we deal with daily. How different are grocery shopkeepers, the vegetable vendors, the milkman, or the newspaper vendor from all these "interesting" people we meet once in a while? Chances are we could learn a great deal of amazing things from all these people with whom we share a daily-basis interaction. It's something called paying attention. Not in literary terms, but actually getting involved a bit with everyone we meet. A Management student friend of mine always has this theory of "cutting through everything, even people if we ought to succeed in life." Needless to say, I strongly disagree and argue over such a selfish theory being put to practice. How can we really trample other people in order to succeed in life? Is that all to our existence? Do we not realize the values of humanity and selflessness anymore? Is our growing dependence on technology and mechanized lifestyle to blame for our lack of empathy? Nobody even seems to care anymore about helping strangers in need. A proof of our visible lack of trust in kindness is seen from the fact that we have social media websites and pages dedicated to stories of humanity under a "Humans of cities..." title? How did we ever come to this situation? It's really saddening to see the vile behaviour of educated, well-off people trash under-privileged with their insensitivity. We really need a course in humanity and kindness. One that is not just taught in schools or instilled in us since birth but really ingrained in our DNA. That would help a lot.
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