Acts of Kindness

written on Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 4:08pm

Everyday I take the bus to school. It is a great way to observe people, and I use the journey time to catch up on my reading. I normally take the 7.45am bus trip, and yes, the buses here are on time. I like to sit behind the bus driver, to have a good view of the journey we are taking into the City.The Bus culture here is a refresher to sanity, passengers say thank you as they disembark, and drivers greet you genuinlely as you board, asking about your day.

For the past 2 weeks, the bus driver taking the route from my house, is the same guy, a mature gentleman, and I have been observing his acts of kindness to his passengers.
The bus that I take uses a card system, where you load money on it and the fare will be deducted from the card, and using the card gives you discounts for your bus trips. The driver can reload the monetary value on your card when you board the bus.

Episode One.

One morning last week, a Lady boarded the bus, and did not realised the money on her card has run low.And she was fumbling in her handbag to get the cash, but the Driver said, "nahhh..you can pay me next time." The lady just looked at him, in disbelieve, but went ahead to get a seat as there were other passengers waiting to board.When it was time for her to disembark, she gave her money to the Driver, but he said "You just go ahead. Don't worry about it. "
Episode Two. This morning a school Boy got on the bus, and asked him whether our bus gets to the destination of his school, and the Driver said, "Not this bus, but it is the bus behind me that gets there." So the boy got off the bus, and the Driver closed the door. But just as he was about to drive on, the Bus that he meant for the Boy, drove pass our bus. Our Driver stopped, and open the door and call out to the Boy and ask him to board our bus. He took the bus fare from the Boy (they have a much subsidised bus fare for school children). And he continued to drive, trying to get as close as possible with the Bus in front, which goes to the Boy's destination.

He walkie-talkied the Bus in front to stop at the next bus stand, telling the Bus driver in front that he has this Boy who needs to get on that bus to reach his school. The Bus in front got the message and both agreed to stop at the next bus stand. Our Driver called out to the Boy, and told him to go into the Bus in front, and told him not to worry about the bus fare.

Such random acts of kindness touch your feelings, that this value is still ,strongly, there in people around us.

It dawn on me that today is a Friday morning. I took one of my pears for lunch, and as I was about to disembark the Bus, I gave our kind Driver the pear, thanking him for his kindness.