Kindness, Nicety and Being Just Human – Putting Relationships first!

10 years ago | Posted in: My Story | 1484 Views

I decided to share this experience – couldn’t resist! Why am I sharing this – An experience that made me realize how important relationships are! Many of us are engrossed with the “big dream”, money and materialism that we lose out on valuable relationships – friends, family etc. Beginning from the smallest of amounts to the biggest like property, business, and blah blah blah it’s never ending wants. It’s everywhere! What would happen if we take this whole money thing a little easy? (I agree money is extremely important and we can’t do without it. I definitely can’t do without money and my materialistic wants – I’m being honest about it). But? Anyway –

So this morning we step out and thankfully we get a taxi quick enough and the usual thing about bargaining begins.  Me – We want to go to ISM, Jibroo. He – Hmmm.. Ok, maafi mushkil (no problem) we can go. Me – Looks at him waiting for him to tell me how much he is going to bomb me. (Sharing taxis are cheap in Muscat whereas a taxi for yourself is expensive)

He – 2 OMR (that’s 20 Dirhams, easily around INR 320 for less than 1.5kms and all of us in India crib cab service is soooooooo expensive). Me – Habibi (my friend) that’s too much, please reduce. He – Ok, taal (come). 1.5 OMR  Me – Gets in and tell him I earn nothing here, this is so expensive… Why so much? And he gives the usual thing about traffic, going back alone etc etc etc

So we have this quick chat, talk about each others country, native, work, family etc etc. But these guys are so serious about respecting human value and being friends this guy was really friendly cracking some jokes and stuff like that! So we reach the school –

Me – taking out the poor money-less purse and I give him 1 OMR looking for the balance buck to be given to him.  He – Enough… Keep it in. Me – No no, take the money we agreed on. He – Shuts my purse and says maafi mushkil anymore anywhere you want to go give me a call, I’ll take you – you don’t have to pay money. If I want, you pay later. (This guy spent like just 10mts talking to us).

Now is when it gets better – So, I choose to go back with him to work and he agrees. My work place is easily about 15mts or so (around 4kms) which would easily cost about 4 OMR on any given day! We reach and this is what happens – Me – Taking out my purse to pay him (I was randomly guessing some amount and going to pay him) He – la la la (no no no) maafi money (no money) I don’t want money Me – What? Why? No. Why would you do that? Habibi – This is your money, you are working and this is your job. You work for a living, so keep the money and we can catch up later as friends. He – antha habibi? (You my friend) Yes? Then keep the money. If you are my friend I don’t want money. If you give me money maafi mushkil, you no my friend.  Me – Still trying to purusade him to take the cash  He – Stubborn, refuses and repeated that if ever we need help getting to places in Muscat, give him a call and he’ll help us out.

This may or may not have an effect on us but  – This guy is a family man with 6 children and the money of 5 OMR that he dint charge us today can feed him an entire day’s meal. It may be small money but that guy is so huge hearted and human. If this man can do this much to a guy whom he never knew till date, what are we doing? How much time effort and time do we take off for relationships? for fixing any misunderstanding? to be patient enough and understand the other person? to help someone in need? in actually being human? In a normal situation all of us (including me) claim that we would do this, we would do that… etc etc but how much or how many times have we even done anything? Whatever good we think we are doing today is something very very meager. No matter how engrossed we are in our careers taking off sometime will do good to us and the society.

 

 

By:  Vaishnav Ramesh
Writer is freelance writer, based in Muscat Oman can be reached on
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2 Responses to “Kindness, Nicety and Being Just Human – Putting Relationships first!”

  • Ashok says:

    I wanted to express my appreciation, for carrying the sections written.

    These days there is so much bad news appearing in the newspaper, but your article blesses the readers so much. Thank you for putting such truthful and moral messages in the newspaper. Your article should be on the front page of all the newspapers. I enjoy reading your column. It is always good to remind everyone of what’s important in life. I appreciate the sweetness in your column – a rare find in today’s media world.”

    Ashok.
    Muscat.

  • Aravind says:

    Articles like these help reiterating on relationships and values. Its a read that makes your day, helps you recollect fond memories of your dear ones, family & friends and makes you question as to why are you living today?

    This kind of article is a hearty read for most of us. Keep the good work coming. Would love to hear more from you.

    Cheers!
    Aravind

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