SMART LIVING;RESPONSIBLE LIVING ?

                   

                     

                         Pardon me ; am I getting presumptuous ?

                 Bear with me ; am I on a self-congratulatory spree ?

                 Humour me ; I might get a trifle unbearable .....

       ..... as unbearable as the autorickshaw driver behind you, who honks incessantly with the sole purpose of goading to skip past the red-alert signal, when morally ( legally, as well ) I am bound to to wait for at least a good half a minute. If the honk had verbal power, it would say " Bugger off, dude. Can't afford the luxury of enjoying trivial matters like waiting for the signal to change colours." To  be fair enough, and self-deprecating , as unbearable as me,              moi, myself ! The above-mentioned citizen of India is an apt prototype of the mass of males who use the same vocational skills to fend for themselves and feed the umpteen mouths at home.

     It first happened during one of those occasions ( it happens quite often these days ) when my rickety car, whom I call my soulmate now, for it begs for moksha , redemption, salvation, thanks to having outlived its 15-year-old run, was at its monthly visit to the 'spa'. I was naturally forced to sign in for the services of the ubiquitous rickshaw to get to my nearby workplace. Being a denizen of a metro like Mumbai, where the scores of good causes initiated by vigilant and and sensitive activists get gobbled up by large-scale indifference, after the initial flare-up of enthusiasm, I have been letting the being-responsible-citizen bug get the better of me, for quite a good period  of time. So, a little hesitantly, a little with confident-trepidation ( oxymoron ?), I pushed the envelope and almost whispered into the 'chauffeur's' ear  a 'request' to wait till the signal turned a fecund green. He turned around, mouth almost agape, eyebrows raised. Then he settled down to a hesitant, but warm smile. "Aap shaayad pehle passenger hain,   saab. Baaki toh.. always in a hurry, with ants in their pants. Ha ha !" This was his response. One thing led to another and the talk finally ( in those short 10 minutes ) culminated to a mutual agreement of being a trifle more patient in such a milieu. If not for anything , at least to act as good guides, if not role models, for the kiddos.

     Cut to a good fifteen minutes post settling down to mundane chores like getting my PC working , it suddenly struck me that I had to call up my son's school for an appointment with the Principal. And that's when it dawned upon me that I had been left rudderless, for I had been deprived of the magic-wand of modern-day communication - my cell-phone ! Probably in the rickshaw ? Being suitable blessed with a great flair for hyper-ventillating, my      near- fossilized presence of mind decided to hang up its tattered boots. A good ten minutes later, divine wisdom decided to descend upon me and I took the chance of giving a tinkle on my registered number, using my landline. One more long period of continuous ringing was driving my nerves to their splitting peak ; the manifestation was a hyperbolic slap on the forehead with my open palm. Tethering on, with a desperate attempt to invoke the favour of Dame Luck  , I kept the exercise of redialling on..... Till the       doorbell rang ' Ting tong'. Door opened . Security guard gives a toothy smile "  Koi aapse...." "Yes, yes, yes !!" was my alacrity-replete reply. 

     Rushing down the stairs, I saw my knight-in-armour. Said he " Kya saab, baatein toh badi badi. Mobile rickshaw mein hee... Aur vibration mode mein ?" The next few minutes of his narration made me realise how much the man  had felt the need to take the extra effort to rattle his presence of mind and memory to come back after a good five-kilometre drive, remembering where he had dropped me. His simply worded talk about how he felt the need to be largely honest was spiced up with a wink, which was followed by the observation by him that dishonesty was a specially nurtured skill, which he was unable to develop. A profusion of thanks from my side was  reciprocated with a modest wave of his hand. 

     Truncating the ecclesiastical blah-blah, lest you think what relevance all this blah-blah has to do , in terms of relevance,with what has been named as the title, I would like to ask if my 'holier-than-thou' ranting makes sense ? Just my way of sharing my experience of how practical and feasible it is to be a little more sensitive to the needs of a changing world around me. People around me notice it and it does reap decent dividends. Retrieval of my cell-phone ,among many ,is only one such instance. And the additional perk of invoking the more sublime qualities from within a fellow being is a special 'kick', of course !!
      Any takers ?