Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Young lady at the ticket counter

I was now reading an article about currency shortage and the problem of "small change" like one, two or three rupees. And, a small personal anecdote came to my mind.

I was at a Metro Rail station. Since I had forgotten my prepaid smart card at home, I had to purchase a token. At the booking counter, the official asked me if I had a change of Rs 2.

But I had only a coin of Rs 5, and he didn't have Rs 3 to give me in return.

There was a brief interlude.

Noticing that there were others waiting in the queue, and not wanting to prolong the agony, I told the official, "It's ok. I will give you Rs 5 and you can keep the change of Rs 3."

He looked surprised; but seemed to agree to the deal.

Just then,  a young lady, standing next to me in the queue, moved forward, took out her wallet, and said, "I have a Rs 2 coin. You can give this. ... "

It took a moment for me to realise what was happening. And I said, "O no, it's fine. It's just three rupees. It comes and goes". Only the other day the vegetable vendor had waived Rs 3 I owed him.

Pushing the Rs 2 coin forward, she said, "Precisely. Two rupees also comes and goes. That's ok. I have been in such situations before."

She in fact pushed that Rs 2 coin through the opening on the ticket counter window. Probably assuming that she and I were known to each other, the ticketing official took that Rs 2 coin. He gave me the token, and turned his attention to that lady.

In the meantime, I thanked that unknown young woman. It also left me a wondering why did she do that, though it was all about just Rs 2. Maybe someone had earlier similarly helped her with change; and she just wanted to keep that chain going.

While she was getting her smart card recharged, I told her. "Thank you, for your kindness," and I headed to the platform to take the Metro. I didn't see her after that.

24 comments:

  1. World is not a bad place as many think. ... and women can be quite helpful, you see!

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    1. We tend to overlook these small incidents, don't we?
      And, I knew you were going to come up with that point you made regarding women! :-)

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Sundar. Why don't your resume blogging?

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  3. Small act of kindness makes a huge difference... Right Pradeep sir...

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  4. Wonderful gesture by that young lady. Something similar happened to me. I wrote about it in 2010. Here it is.

    https://sgshootthebreeze.blogspot.com/2010/02/whodunit.html

    ReplyDelete
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    1. When I pasted this link, the screen said, "Blog not found". Then I got to your post after inserting a hyphen after "sg". :-)

      Thanks for pointing me to that post of yours. I have left a comment there.

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  5. There's still hope in this world! Thanks for sharing :)

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  6. A little positivity is always welcome! :)

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    1. Thanks Deepika for the comment. :-) I think you should resume blogging!

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  7. Chandu GopalakrishnanWednesday, 26 April, 2017

    It's not a bad world after all :-)

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  8. so much positivity....:) #smallhappiness

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  9. Wow!! That is a sweet encounter. In a world full of people fighting over just a rupee, she was generous enough to give Two rupees to a stranger, just like that? Rare People :) Very nicely written, Sir :)

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  10. Hi Pradeep, Yes, we do bump into such sweet people on and off in life.

    On an another note, women are very helpful :)
    Or maybe it was your charm that the lady couldn't resist helping you ;)

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  11. Possible that the ticket giver might be playing this trick often and she might have become a victim.So she didn't want that man to play that smart.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. That's a sweet gesture. And as you mentioned, small fruit and vegetable vendors do it all the time

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  13. Hi Pradeep - it's an excellent story ... and so kind of your fellow queuer to help you ... even better she was a woman! But we can all help others in small ways quite often - it's being ready to proffer that small change or put it in a donation box ... well done - and I know it will appear again in your life - cheers Hilary

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    1. Thanks, Hilary, for dropping by and for your comments.

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