#Little things

Write about a time you made someone feel very nice. Hopefully it can be a collection of ideas that others can take forward. If somehow a few people do something nice as a result, that would be powerful. To start with an example: Bought a laptop for my grandfather because he wanted to continue working post 60. Helped him learn Excel, Gmail, Chrome browsing over many days. He really picked it up, and works as a consultant for new companies in the industry he worked all his life.

I was at a friends place and it suddenly started raining heavily. I had to reach my girlfriends place ASAP. She was already very angry that I was not spending enough time with her. The problem was that I was not getting any auto on Uber or Rapido. I stopped an auto and asked it for a ride. He quoted Rs 800 for a 4km ride. I was like, "Are you crazy?" I somehow negotiated it down to Rs. 500. But it made me wonder why is this city like this. Like everyone is trying to scam you. Every one is a grifter, from your landlord to auto wallahs to the cops. Have you faced such things in this city?

Ok so i was traveling back from home when my overnight bus arrived early at 5.30am at the destination. It was still a bit dark. I had to book a cab for my place but an autowala was very persistent on taking me to my destination and even after i told him 3-4 times (even rudely) he didn't stop asking about my destination and saying "chalo na madam" while getting too close physically. This man standing besides me had booked another Uber and his cab had arrived. After boarding his luggage he simply asked me "is your cab here?" I said not yet. He asked me if he can wait till my cab arrived and I agreed. It was just 2 mins for him but it was a huge deal for me since I felt safe in his presence while he even asked the autowala to stand away. He made sure my OTP was verified and then left on his way. Thankyou for making me feel safe.

My friend booked an Uber cab and it wasn't moving. He sent a text asking for Phone Number in the app itself. She didn't give any number at first but then he started to spam the chat asking for phone number and she thought maybe he couldn't call her for some reason via Uber that's why asking for number. So she sent her number to the driver expecting a call from him. There was a warning about not sharing phone number in the chat which was ignored. Just after few secs of sharing the phone number, the ride was started without even her being in the car. She wondered how can an Uber start a ride without a pin as she needs to share the pin and she could see the car nowhere. When trying to cancel the ride, it showed that it would charge extra money and so she decided not to cancel it yet and tried to check other options to complain to Uber. The cab driver ended the trip and money was deducted automatically as she had online payment set up. Although she was successful to get the refund for the same on reporting it in Uber, I wanted to know how can someone start ride without the pin being shared? What did he do with the phone number ?

A faded memory dawned on me early this morning while commuting to work, as I saw few kids leaving for school. A few years back, I was teaching underprivileged children in a distant government school as a part of a social initiative. We asked kids, What do you want to become when you grow up?” I really felt humbled and privileged when the kids responded with Policeman, Driver, Mechanic, Patwari(govt official who keeps record of lands) etc. We even remarked that whether they would prefer to be a pilot. And they responded with No. Perhaps, it was representative of things that they knew could achieve and things they could not. It may even have been that their initial choices were likely due to positions of power that they had witnessed and wanted to emulate. Probably, they were not exposed to various options that exist out there. As my cab whirred away, I was left with a deep sense of gratitude upon recollection of those memories. I really hope those kids achieve whatever they set their sights at.

I’ve lived in north india all my life My uber rating never dropped below 4.8 😂 I’m in blr from past from and my rating is already 4.3 What I’m doing wrong 🥺

Have heard that they offer shared rides which costs as less as 400 rupees only to travel to Airport🙀

It's been some time since I received some kindness from people. The last time I heard some kind words or got a kind gesture was very long ago. Today, whoever I interact with behaves absurdly without any compassion. The shopkeepers won't talk politely if asked about a product, the house owners will talk rudely and make random rules any day, people won't smile on the metro, in restaurants they will shout on the waiters and the list goes on. I am not even bringing up autowalas and taxiwalas. What does it take to show some compassion? How much does it take to compromise a little bit so that other person feels good about this world? Why does everyone want to just rip other off? 😞

I'm currently in my notice period as I didn't feel like this was the right place for me, so I quit without a plan. Yesterday, while traveling through Uber, the driver told me about how he nearly got killed. He has two kids in Kolkata, and he's in Bangalore without the money to get his car fixed. I don't know what got into me, but I handed over 5k bucks to him. I usually don't bet, but I placed a wager on the India vs. SA match and made 50k after betting 30k. Last night, during a La Liga match, I went again and went yolo on Real. Despite them getting a red card and scoring in the 92nd minute, it was an absolute miracle. Making me another 30k I think it is God paying it forward :) If you've read this far, thanks, and here's a gentle reminder to pay it forward.