Remembering the good, and only the good...

When I went there after almost two years of leaving the job and met all my ex-colleagues, I saw a man smiling broadly as we were all talking.
"Sorry, I did not recognise you,” I said. 
"...You shared your lunch with me,” he said. 
I still had no memory of that incident. He elaborated "It was my first day here and I hadn’t brought anything for lunch. You gave me an apple from your lunch. You are a very nice person..."

I was dumbstruck; not because I had not remembered it, not because I had only given him an apple, but because he had remembered that small incident and that small impromptu act had made me a nice person in his eyes.

I can assure you, I am not that nice a person. In fact, I can be mean and selfish, just like anyone else. However, this gentleman’s words reminded me how a small act can not only leave a good or a bad memory, but can also make or break relationships.

A few years ago, when my husband was travelling, I fell sick during the night. In the morning, still shivering, I wrapped myself in the quilt. I could not drive in that condition, not across the ocean (then and now) called SZR. The only person who came to my mind was my then colleague and friend AKS. She lived in Golden Sands, while I was near the then Defence Roundabout, and it was a time when Oasis Centre was as far as the people not working in Jebel Ali went on SZR! In less than half an hour she picked me up, took me back to Bur Dubai to our insurance approved doctor, helped me with the medicines, took me to her home, force-fed me the breakfast, and then dropped me back home...I have never forgotten that act of kindness. I could have never done it , especially if I had a baby to take care of. Every time I think about her or see her on my FB, that one incident towers above all to tell me that a friend in need is a friend indeed. I am ashamed to admit, I would have most likely failed her in her such time of need- thanks to my fear of SZR!

Whether it was the boss who took time out from his very busy schedule to answer my non-job related questions on Advertising, or his wife who always met us like she was one of us, the colleague who volunteered to show me how to put baby pics on the office desk without the horrible tape showing, the colleague who made dhansak for all of us, the friends who took care of me when I was sick in college and didn’t even take money for the fruits they had to buy to help me recover, the friend who took it on him to take us all out in those Eid holidays because my husband was travelling, the friend who offered to take care of my baby if I wanted to take up some classes to enrich my life, or the stranger who helped me on that cold Delhi evening when the auto-wallahs went on strike....each one is so different in their acts, and yet have the common thread of having been kind to me.

It is also surprising as I write this, that I only remember the good, happy, kind acts others have done for me. Not a single memory of a routine bad deed comes to my mind; not even if I scratch my brain.  So, I let go of it...I am happy to report that it feels lighter :).

If only I could say a big thank you to all those people whose acts of kindness in my time of need or otherwise helped me keep my faith ...if only I could promise myself that I will always only be kind to others, and create a memory that they will be happy to remember when they see, hear, or think of me...