People are nice!

There are many times when kids can drive the parents up the wall with their tantrums. But there are a few times they can be absolute angels- like mine was this morning. She knew her mom was struggling with a back ache, basically got ready for school all by herself and was downstairs for breakfast well before neither of her parents were ready. Pleasantly surprised and obviously pleased, I let her watch the TV while we were still upstairs. When I got downstairs a few minutes later, I was shocked to see that the local KATU channel was on and not the OPB kids channel I thought we had set it at. As I rushed to switch the channel, Raaga said  "There was a bad guy, he shooted somebody. He died and went to the hospital. But it is on TV so it is not real, it is a pretend movie". How I wished she was right about the Seattle shooting incident being a fictional movie! How can seemingly fine man like this gunman turn so violent? I am in an utter disbelief that the 26yrs old Aaron Ybarra just wanted to kill as many people as he could before taking his own life! If only I could tell him how nice most people are! If only I could tell him how beautiful life can be!

For most of his career as a high school teacher, my father rode his cycle (my grandfather's originally) to work. He even rode the cycle to the homes of two families that he tutored after school. One night, instead of on his cycle, he came home on a brand new Luna Superstar (a small motorbike)- gifted by the parents of a student he tutored. They even took care of taking the Luna to a temple for the customary new vehicle prayer. For a family that did not own color television and refrigerator well into late 80s, receiving that Luna for a gift felt extremely generous. It made a world of difference to my father's work commuting and I got a first glimpse of kindness that was all around us. 

My father's transition from cycle to Luna happened around the same time as my determination to learn to ride a bike. I started renting a cycle from the colony bike shop at 50 Paise per hour to practice riding. A few days later, my friend volunteered her brother's bike so I didn't have to pay rent. Her kindness paid off and I learnt how to ride a bike even though I don't think she herself ever learnt riding. My biking skills convinced my father to share his Luna with me. There were many memorable adventures involving my friend, myself and the Luna in the days immediately after high school! My friend and I sadly parted ways for college; I stayed in Hyderabad while she went to Chennai for the next four years. After graduating from college, as my appointment for VISA at the consulate neared, I realized I needed a large sum of money in our bank account to prove that I would not be a burden to US economy- even though I already had written confirmation of tuition waivers and financial assistance from gradschool. We had applied for a student loan to cover the flight expenses but we had not factored this bank balance requirement. It was a large sum of money and we were at our wits end trying to pool that kind of money. I casually mentioned this to my friend while discussing grad school plans. The next morning, my friend's father called me and gave me a bag of cash. He said I could give it back 'whenever'. A few months later, I arrived in the US; the folks at consulate did not see a reason to think that I would burden their country.

I know how to ride a bike today, thanks to some nice friends. I got to drive a motorbike and appear cool (OK, lukewarm at best) in college thanks to some really generous people. And today I am in this country because of a very kind family. I am just an average human being and I have been the recipient of more acts of kindness than I can fit in a dozen blogs. I really wish people like Aaron Ybarra thought twice before mindlessly shooting at innocent people. I bet even he can recall someone being kind to him as he bagged their groceries at the store. Reading about these mindless shootings really angers me. Makes me want to yell out- Be kind! People are nice! 

The elderly couple I said hi to on my way to work on the bike over the past few months said last week that they were going back to India this weekend and asked me to stop by their daughter's home before they left. They had made me a goodie bag: home made snacks, laddus and coriander powder. All for my yelling a generic Hi at them, often not even slowing my bike down. People are nothing but nice!