A nice gesture

I had gone out with Subhash's dad to check out a place this afternoon. It was around lunch and it was extremely hot very much needless to say. On our way back (we went in an auto) I got off at the gate of our campus and wanted to find out if that small tires shop guy had change for 100 since his dad didn't have any. So I was asking him and noticed this lady walking right past me looking at me. He said he didn't have change and Subhash's dad then went on.

Now I have to digress a little. When I was in Std V in Ann's, I experienced a very nasty theft of my ear-rings. It was school day I think, we all dressed in coloured-games uniform (these were the regular skirt-shirt combo but the skirt was the colour of your house, you wore these uniforms on special occasions like Independence Day, Sports Day and Investiture Day, Investiture day is still probably one of the best days of my life, notwithstanding the fact that I lost out on being Head Girl and ended up as house-captain instead:(, anyway too much digression). It was a half-day and as soon as we were done I came out and waited for the school bus. My sister was still in Std II then and so she didn't come to school because Primary school was exempted from coming for special occasions, they just had a holiday. So I waited and waited and the bus didn't come. We used to live in Kacheguda back then and I was always told to not come in an auto and only wait for the bus no matter what. For obvious reasons. We were too young to take autos by ourselves. Details are a little hazy now, but I decided to wait on. Then a lady approached me. And she asked me what I was doing. Naturally you are taught to distrust strangers so I gave her answers and kept my distance. She then told me that my mom had sent her and asked her to collect my ear-rings so that they are safe. She took me to sit by a bench in St. mary's church which adjoined the school's ICSE building. I was waiting at that gate. Then when I didn't yield she started telling me how she would have to spank me to take them because I was being a bad girl and not listening to my mom's orders. If not for anything, just out of sheer terror of this whole situation, I gave my ear-rings to her and she went her way. I waited for another hour and then the bus came (at the normal time @ 3.15 PM) and I hopped on it and got home. With hardly any hope I asked my mom if "aunty" gave her the ear-rings. (See I was 10 years then, and i might have thought over the story and believed it eventually, you can't really blame me for being stupid like that ;) ). My mom naturally got a shocker. One there was the loss of earrings. Two, the things that could have gone wrong further. I think my mom couldn't decide if she wanted to be happy because at least I was home safe and sound or if she wanted to be upset over the loss. So she was in general overwhelmed I think. And my sister naturally came about saying if she were in my place she would have shouted for help and so on and so forth, you know how younger sisters are, not very helpful in sticky situations, gosh!

Actually this is probably the most mis-adventurous my life has gotten, thank god! I am surprised I never wrote about it earlier ;) This is the single most closest-to-danger thing thats happened in my childhood to me I think.

So anyway, today there was this lady who walked right by me when I was asking for change. After I was done and started walking inside towards the campus, she approached me and asked me where I was going. For some reason, I don't know if it was the way she looked or if it was that umbrella she was holding, for some reason she reminded me of that lady who robbed me of my ear-rings 18 years ago. I felt defensive. In my mind I went "Bring it on. I can deal with the likes of you now. I am older now. When I was young you took advantage of it, now let me show you what I will do" and so on and so forth, all in that 2 seconds. I told her I was going inside. She asked me what I asked the fellow. I told her I asked for change (all along thinking "Yeah, show me what you have got"). She asked me how much change. I said for 100s. I said it was OK anyway now that the person with me left already. Then she started walking with me inside. My my so many guts! To walk into a corporate campus?! Well, the lady who robbed me also walked with me into the school, it was so the same now. She asked me if I worked here, I said yes. She then let me walk under her umbrella. What?! Can she actually be a nice person?! Hmm.. so anyway we continued walking and now it was my turn to ask her questions. I asked her what she did. And she said she was a security personnel for Cisco at the Service gate.

What?!?!?!? Could this have ended anymore ironically? She wasn't really here to rob me but she was one of those people who actually protects me during my work day?! God!!

We talked about weather thats getting hotter and hotter, where she lived, how she commuted, what shift she was in, how long it took her to get to work every day and so on and so forth (you see how information is now flowing from her and not me?;) ) Soon we were at the security post and I wanted to see if she actually was who she claimed. I came in with my badge (Yeah companies here have security check points way beyond the buildings, unlike in the US where you just go straight to the building) and she pushed in through the side without any badge. I was like "Maybe she is after all someone trying to enter the building saying she was with me?" We have been warned enough times about those kind of things (especially in the morning itself I attended a session on Safety and Security;) ) I made sure to see where she was going. I felt good when she walked right into the security booth to talk with those other guys over there :) So I didn't get cheated a second time after all :D

And she actually held the umbrella for me while we were walking in. I felt touched. It was an amazing feeling of warmth :)