Glimpses from the rickshaw

 

This afternoon I was meeting a few friends for lunch at a bistro on Prabhat Road in Pune. It was just past noon. I called for an Uber auto. I love rickshaws. Their rides are a unique experience that you don’t find in the USA. They swing by small lanes of the city and give a feeling of connection with the people on the streets that you don’t get in a car with rolled up windows. 

Today as the rickshaw driver pulled into the smaller lanes off Karve Road traffic was a bit congested. We had to slow down briefly. There were two-wheelers and cars squeezing in front of us and behind us. Pedestrians were making their way through the vehicular traffic. 

My eyes glanced upon a young mother, probably in her late twenties, holding the hand of her son who was probably 8 years old and dressed in his school uniform. I inferred that she was either taking him to or bringing him from school. She was entirely oblivious to the surroundings and surely unaware of me watching from the rickshaw. I saw her shake her head, bend it forward and wring the free hand in a gesture of tiredness or boredom. Her facial expression corresponded to the body language. She was lost in her own thoughts and her son seemed to be in his own world.

In that flash I imagined her as a prototype of an ordinary person bogged down by the routine of life. The same old wake up in the morning, cook for the family, take the kids to school, run other errands, bring the kids from school, cook, clean, go to sleep. Or a man with a long day at work coming home late each evening. Day after day you get wary of it all. It begins to seem like a donkey’s burden. Literally in that one moment she gave the impression of such reality. 

I realized how we are all vulnerable to this feeling. Yet when watching it as an observer another realization followed. It’s the attitude. And will. And these both are in our hands to adopt. I do not wish to ever invite the attitude of tiredness or boredom into my day even when they knock on the door from time to time. No matter what life throws at me I want to rise up with enthusiasm and energy. And hence my will needs to be alive.

When we look in muddier waters we can’t see the reflection of ourselves. As the dust settles we can see life and ourselves in better light. I think that’s what is happening to me these days. Some insights that I didn’t have in my 20s or 30s or 40s are coming in now. Not too late I suppose. 

I don’t know what the young woman’s life was or is like. I will never know. But I hope she will enjoy every minute of it and not let it bog her down.