What can you do?Can you is not the question but Will you is an option.

Well friends,

Today I want to share one of the most life touching incidents with you,its a very short incident but very significant in my life,It so happened that one day I boarded a public transport for going to my college.As soon as I got a seat I started rehearsing my talk which  I had to speak at a seminar held by my college.I had dressed to my best on that day.As the public transport was a 4 seater on each side,we were four passengers in it,two on my side and two on the other.We had traveled only a short distance and the vehicle halted to board two more passengers.This time it was a poor rag picker woman and her young daughter about four years old.As she was boarding the vehicle clad in her tattered saree and rag with her daughter whose hands and body were dirty beyond imagination and clad  in a torn piece of frock,the driver of the vehicle demanded whether she had money to travel or not to which she politely and in an embarrassed tone replied,yes,being very cautious of all the well dressed people sitting in the vehicle,she managed to sit across me on the other seat,while her daughter watched her mom sitting and the seat being filled she turned towards our seat where there were only two people sitting.As she was going to sit besides me,her mom ordered her to sit at the floor of the vehicle realizing how well dressed and neat and clean I and the lady next to me was.She followed her mother's instruction obediently  and sat at the floor of the vehicle.Oh my God,that discrimination took away all the attention from my memorizing the lines of the seminar topic towards that child sitting at my and other passenger's feet who tried to push herself away from that little one's touch lest she be stained.I was totally blanked out watching what was happening,I noticed how her mother was looking at me with appreciation in her eyes for being dressed up so well neat,clean and carrying an educated look.Suddenly,something diverted my attention from the mother to my feet which I  felt was being slightly touched by something,to my amazement it was not the breeze,but I stealthily watched the young girl touching the edge of my silken saree and feeling happy about the feeling it gave to her.This fearful (of not to be caught )yet pleasing touch to the girl,filled my heart with tears,empathy and regret,regret because what was I waiting for, what am I doing,watching a mother who wanted her child to sit on the seat I was  sitting to only be instructed to sit on the floor because she was dirty and a rag picker.No,this can't be what I had to be a part of.I took a lot of time and hesitation in taking my first step towards doing something for them like we all do in such situations or even don't.I leaped over all my emotions,hesitation and confusion and reached out for the child at my feet and made her sit besides me,yes,holding her arms ignoring they were stained.Her mother shockingly intervened and said no its okay you will get dirty let her sit down which I out rightly rejected,all through the rest 15 minutes of my journey I could see how happy the child was to be a part of us,to be able to look out of the window seat and enjoy the breeze,she kept looking back at me and smiling,I could see the immense joy in her eyes for being seated besides the ones whose filth she carried along with her mother daily morning from homes.I could also see the wet eyes of her mother wet with pride that her daughter was also sitting with us and was a part of us now and wet with gratitude for me.She was speechless, but I could see the contentment in her eyes.The other people looked at me in amazement for doing this action,it left me wondering about what were they amazed about,wasn't she one of us.The lady besides me said to come and sit near her and away from the girl next to me as was evident from her face on how can I sit besides the soiled girl,and her dirty rag.This action of hers was aptly questioned by me that how on Navratras (The Hindu festival of 9 days wherein worshiping Goddess Durga and feeding young girls on 9th day is considered a blessing as the young girls signify the Goddess herself ) did she feed the young girls like her?To this she said, the girl was dirty and that she smelled to which I replied she might look dirty but  her soul isn't.Anyways, I wasn't there to change people's opinion , I did what my heart couldn't accept and this deed left me with immense pride not for doing a great deed in other people's eyes,but that I was not one among them who discriminated the well efficient ones with those who are unprivileged.While getting down at my destination , I also made it a point to pay for the poor lady's and her daughter's fare.As the vehicle was leaving I could see her mother turn back and smile at me while her daughter waved her hand at me.Initially,I thought of sanitizing my hands but then I realized that the stain on my palms was more precious than any other thing that day as it was the gift from my young friend who had only this to offer,a touch of love.Friends,this incident happened with me in 2008 and for a duration of half an hour,but I can still feel the joy of sharing my journey with them and it still motivates me to do more of such deeds for those like us.Like us? Yes,because they are poor in want of materialistic resources and we poor in want of empathy towards them.So aren't we the same,Instead I think,we are poorer than them.Go ahead,don't wait for such a situation to pass away,don't jut keep watching and hesitating,reach out to them,to them who are old and holding heavy bags of grocery,by offering them a lift or carrying their articles to their home,visiting any govt hospital and funding some poor man's cataract operation,donating a blanket to those who are shivering out in the cold,funding the school fee of an underprivileged child,offering your seat to an old person in a public transport or to be a part of the little change in situations like I had brought in that vehicle the other day.You must be amazed to know but for five years I regularly watched at early morning while leaving for college, two men one at the back and the other at the front of the cart,pulling the heavily loaded cart with hay for the cattle to a far away destination wherein they would be paid to carry the load.It took four years from my side to muster the courage to offer them my help.You must be thinking me to be foolish enough to be a part of such a laborious work,but I knew I couldn't do much but at least I asked for helping them,that was sufficient,you must be wondering what reward this action of mine must have brought to me,to me it brought a passing smile by the two workers from the next day while I saw them passing by.Trust me,when I say wealth and all the accomplishments you have attained will not bring the joy to you as such an act of kindness would : Trust me,it does and remember : " Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned."