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Sunday, December 02, 2012

The Kindness of Strangers...

.. is a term I have heard around the place, but never actually experienced much. After all, kindness is not easily found nowadays, and especially from strangers!! We also seem to get into the habit of looking at unknown people suspiciously and teach our kids to be wary of "strange" uncles and aunties too.

This post is part of the Marathon Bloggers initiative, one post every day in December. Too lazy right now to update with the stamp and all, will do that tomorrow, but if in case anyone reading is not a part of it and wants to join, do check out the FB group Marathon Bloggers.

Just drove back from Chennai, which is a relaxed 5-6 hour drive for us usually. But today was the day S decided to throw up all the contents of his stomach all along the way :(. Nearly every half hour after we started from Chennai, there were some mini explosions in the car, that even the experienced with car-sickness ol' me was unable to contain.. End result: splatters all over the car, including our clothes (Mine and S) and needing to wash and change 4 times. For S, we could just stand on the roadside and do that, but me obviously needed a nook somewhere.

Scene 1: Roadside thatch roof veggie shop, where the ladies very accommodatingly came out and let me go sit inside and change.

Scene 2: An auto garage that had some sort of toilet, where I could do a quick change.

Scene 3: Our water was also done by then, and I just stopped at a house (small one) on the side and asked for water. A young boy - actually got me a 2 litre bottle of cold water to drink! How very sweet!! I gave it back and asked for water for washing, for which he unhesitatingly gave me a vessel/lota with water in it to use. I also managed to evict an entire family from their one room house where they were watching TV for changing into what was my last set of clothes (It was a 2 day trip after all, and I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't happen again!).

I was just amazed and touched at the willingness of people to help. After the first incident, I was on the verge of turning back towards my parents-in-law's home thinking we would just stay the night and leave again the next morning, but each experience taught me that the world is not too bad after all :). Reached home finally post 8, and S is doing ok as of now, fingers crossed!

15 comments:

  1. Awww that is one journey! Hope you guys are feeling much better and S recovers soon. Big hug for the li'l one. Looking fwd to reading your posts which I do anyway ;)

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    1. Thanks Simran :). I read every one of yours too, though get lazy to comment as I get it on mail, will definitely get into that habit more now ;).

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  2. How beautiful was that post to read :) Loved it.

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  3. Love how life balances itself at times and when help pours in from unexpected corners it sure brightens our day. It was a lovely read..its lifted my spirits on an otherwise dreaded Monday morning.:)

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    1. Thanks so much for dropping in AJ, and for your kind words :). Looking forward to enjoying so many new bloggers this lovely month of December!

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  4. Our daughter has motion sickness, so we are usually prepared when we go on trips. Our drive to our hometown is 7-8hrs, now we don't do it in one stretch, break it into two. And for me personally, it is a great excuse for not to drive :)

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    1. We went through that phase very badly with my daughter, always used to have extra towels and rags in the car. Now fingers crossed, she seems to be done with the worst, but this one with my son was a completely out of the blue episode thanks to a cold and maybe a new car smell :(.

      We love to drive (not to mention too lazy to plan and book tickets in advance), so even during the worst of car sickness days have made long drives to most places in the south :).

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  5. touched to hear about the helpfulness of people around..glad to know S is doing fine now..the journey must have been so difficult for you..:-0
    glad that you are in the marathon too..looking forward to your posts :-)
    happy blogging!

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  6. Beautiful post, Aparna. And touched a chord with me. Kindness of strangers - I find it wherever I go. And another 'same-tosame' :) - I went throught this in the Himalayas, where my lil boy kept puking throughout the drive up and around the hills. And it's a royal pain, isn't it?

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    1. Oh quite terrible Jane.. this was on normal terrain, don't get me started on ghat roads, even I may join the gang at times like those. Himalayas!! You were brave! I'm not attempting that anytime soon ;).

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  7. Oh I must can imagine how the journey must have been!! Poor fellow - what happened? Hope he's absolutely fine now.
    Random kindness is so heartening isn't it? You normally do find it only outside the towns - i've experienced it very often at work.
    Great that u are participating in the one-a-day post this month - you post too little as I've often told u! :)

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    1. Seems like a random combination of phlegm and motion sickness Aparna, seems ok now, fingers crossed.

      And I was hoping you would join this bandwagon too ;) !!

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  8. Anonymous3:52 AM

    Hi, Just happened to hit upon your blog and got stuck to it...makes it a very interesting read indeed...! seetha

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