Thursday, November 10, 2005

The Wonder of a Used Bus Ticket

I have a friend and fellow student by the name of Avinash. On each day that we attend classes together, he does something that I take as a reminder of the fact that there is inherent goodness in all people and it comes out in many small but sparkling ways.

You see, BEST apparently has a scheme according to which, if someone collects 5000 bus tickets and submits them at a bus depot, BEST sponsors the education of an orphan for one year. In our entire class, it was only Avinash who was aware of this scheme. A few months ago I realised that he meticulously preserves all his bus tickets and arranges them neatly in bunches of one hundred. It was the least I could do to hand over my bus tickets to him when we met each day. Soon, I found myself saving the tickets of the days that we did not meet in class and I also noticed that almost everyone else in class, including (the occasional) lecturer(s), was handing in their bus tickets to him. Avinash now has more than 3000 tickets in his collection and the number grows steadily.

Is it something easy to do? Not really...the task involves collecting often badly crumpled tickets, smoothing them out carefully so as to avoid tearing them, taking them home and keeping a proper count of how many there are, then arranging them into neat piles secured with clips, bands etc. He spends time on this which could easily be given to a dozen other things that a postgraduate student has to do...yet he chooses to do this. Why? Because this is the way that the divinity that is within him chooses to express itself. I am certain of the fact that every person on this planet has such divinity and it manifests in different ways, whether he/she is aware of it or not.

Another related example is our driver, Gopal Bhaiya. About a month ago, during a long drive we started chatting about everything from driving practices to religion. Somewhere in between I mentioned this little ritual that Avinash engages in. It received an appreciative nod and a few queries before we launched into another discussion.

Today, just before he returned the car keys (before going home), he came to meet me and put a bunch of bus tickets in my hand. I was dazed for a moment and then I looked at him and saw him smile...there was a very happy twinkle in his eye. I didn't really have words at that point, so I just returned the smile and said a heartfelt 'thank-you'.

My point is, Gopal Bhaiya did not have to do this either...like many others, the final destination reached by his bus ticket, at the end of each day, was some garbage can, if not the nearest pavement or drain. But ever since he had heard of Avinash, something had stirred the inner goodness within himself and it had spurred him to collect quite a lot of tickets.

Somewhere, there is an orphan who deserves to be educated. People like Avinash and Gopal Bhaiya will be responsible for taking this bit of light into his/her life...people that he/she might never meet, never know.

I thank the Universe for every such person out there...god bless you all.

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