For de-addiction purpose, and also for other reasons I became irregular recently in MS. Well, now I 'm back, and I would like to share an incident which I came across few months back.
Going out and having lunch with my hubby is my weekend ritual. Every Saturday I spend the whole day with him,and come home around evening. This specific day we went to an ice cream parlor. I was asking for a chocolate ice cream for a long time,and was not getting time to have one. We entered the shop,and ordered for our choices; a chocolate ice cream, and a vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. While we were enjoying our ice creams, a little boy around 8-9 years, arrived there. It was clear that he is from neighborhood, in his casuals, he stood there for a while. Then he approached the counter, and asked, "how much is that vanilla ice cream"? "60 Rs", was the answer from the person behind the counter,he didn't look very happy to reply........May be he didn't like the boy's choice of ice cream,as it was the most basic one in that shop. "Well, how much is that vanilla with chocolate sauce?" "70 Rs", this time,a little bit easier,came his answer. Happy to sell his item,I thought.
The boy stood there for a moment,calculating something in his mind. The person became impatient now. "Which one to give you?" he asked him. "Well,give me the vanilla,one,without any sauce". The boy pulled out two currency notes,one of 50,and another of 10,towards this man. The person looked at him disapprovingly, and scooped out his choice in a plastic cup. He didn't give him any spoon,may be his disappointment led him to do so. The child picked up one spoon from counter, and sat across our table. Next 10 minutes he happily devoured his ice cream,and when he finished it, he licked the sides of his cup. I used to do the same thing when I was a kid, so could not stop myself smiling seeing him.
It was time to go now,he pulled out something from his pocket,and hid under his cup.I was finishing my ice cream,so didn't see what it was. After he was gone,the person behind the counter came to clean the table. When he lifted the cup,he saw a folded five rupee note under the cup. He stopped for a while,then collected it,and put into his pocket. He was gone now,but I was thinking of the kid. In this age only,he started thinking of others. He sacrificed his portion of chocolate sauce to tip the cleaner. it's remarkable, isn't it? May be it seems foolish for some people,sacrificing our own desire for people we don't know, doesn't make any sense. But learning the art of giving starts right from here. I felt nice,I felt enlightened. The small boy taught me a lesson. Don't know how much the bartender understood about it,but it was a delight to come across such a boy. God bless him!
