IDLI, ORCHID AND WILLPOWER by Dr Vithal Venkatesh Kamat

Author:Dr Vithal Venkatesh Kamat [Kamat, Dr Vithal Venkatesh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: EMBASSY BOOKS
Published: 2014-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

A Rare Event

One will never know when one is taught a new lesson on some turning point in life. Take an example from the recent past. I was on my way to Delhi. A young lady was standing behind me to check in her baggage. She had lots of baggage, a hand-bag, a purse and a small child in her arms. Seeing that she was unable to handle all this, I waited after I had checked in my own baggage. I helped her to check in her baggage. There were three foreign women just behind her.

When the transit bus arrived to take us to the plane I saw the young lady struggling between her hand-bag, the purse and the child.

While climbing into the bus with the hand-bag, the child in her arms lost his balance. Before he could fall down, I pushed ahead and caught hold of him. I waited on the tarmac till the lady had climbed in. The French lady behind me smiled and said, “You have a very sweet child.”

I clarified, “It is not my child. In a sense, we should all look upon him as our child since he is the only child among us grown-ups and his mother is unable to look after him as well as the baggage.”

The French lady nodded and said, “Now that is a beautiful thought.”

I replied, “There are very few who understand this and fewer still who appreciate it.”

The French lady and her two friends had chocolates in their hands. Offering me the chocolate in her hand, she said, “Here is a chocolate for you.”

I politely refused the chocolate but she queried, “Why? Don’t you eat chocolates?”

I said, “I do! But I need to eat two chocolates every time.” As I said this I mischievously looked at the chocolates in the hands of her friends. The three of them began to laugh. The first lady took the chocolates from the hands of her friends and offered them to me, “Today you can eat three chocolates at a time.”

The other passengers began to “smile” at this little drama being enacted in their midst and by the time we entered the plane everyone was on first-name basis.

When the plane landed in Delhi and I made my way to my hotel, I had three chocolates and a lot of good-will. When I introduced myself and gave my card to the three French ladies, they said, “Nice to meet you, Mr. Kamat! We will stay at The Orchid the next time we are in Mumbai.”

The lady with the small child also thanked me. She took my card and gave me hers. “My husband is a top-ranking manager in a well-known company. He keeps coming to Mumbai. The next time he comes to Mumbai he will meet you. In fact, he will stay at your hotel,” she said.

Putting all these cards into my pocket I thought: one small act of kindness done without any reward in mind had proved so profitable. This gift of making

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