I'm Glad.....I was wrong

The incident took place a week back.It was 8.30 A.M and i was late for the office bus :( ( Since mng, Murphy's law had been working to its best.....waking up late;forgetting I-card,almost missing the office bus etc etc).I could have gone to office on my own but i prefer the bus for a very simple reason....u get to catch up on your sleep for another 45 mins.:)In an attempt to make it just on time for the bus, i decided to hire a auto till the bus bay.I kept telling the driver to go fast but due to the heavy traffic he wasn't able to do anything.

I was about to reach and spotted the bus from a distance.In a hurry to get down ,i quickly paid the auto driver and got into the bus.Ah...Mr Murphy was still following me....there were no vacant seats and i had to stand. Everybody sitting was fast asleep.I decided to sms a few friends of mine and looked for my mobile in the bag.( The bag is generally cluttered these days and thats why i had to look hard for my phone.)oh....oh....what was happening.....i wasn't able to find it even after 2 attempts of searching the bag inside out.Thankfully i had another mobile and decided to call up my mom and find out if i had left the other one at home.she also searched but to no avail. oh....what was i going to do now.??? There were too many thoughts in my mind at that time. The only option i could think of at that time was to get down from the bus and then decide the action plan.

Having got down,i took an auto till the bus bay again.....something told me that i'd perhaps left the mobile in the auto itself.( i guess Murphy had decided this to be the climax of the day). After asking this auto driver also to speed up,i finally reached. i quickly got down and tried to locate the auto driver(Thankfully,i remembered his face very well).There were too many autos and i wasn't able to spot him. At a distance i saw a lot of auto drivers standinga nd decided to seek their help.They listened to the whole story and said they knew the auto driver very wellcoz they'd seen me getting down and running behind the office bus. I was little better now. one amongst the auto drivers called up this driver and asked him his whereabouts and about the mobile. He disconnected the call without replying.For a moment i thought i'd lost it.(This mobile was a gift from my Sis and jiju and i was already feeling angry on my carelessness.)

After 20 mins i saw an auto coming and stopping near me and a hand taking out the mobile and handing it to me. Thank god...my hearbeat was back to normal.:) I immediately called my mom and told her that i'd found my mobile.she was really happy on hearing that and told me that she knew i'd find it.

Any number of 'Thankyou(s)' would have been less for the driver.I took out some money to give him but he refused.Inspite of telling him to take the money and buy something for his kids;he was not ready to listen. He just said'Madam,yeh toh meri duty thi.Iskiye liye mujhe paise nahi chahiye' and left.I was speechless. The morning's irritation had come down and i wanted to clap for the driver.I thanked the other drivers as well who had helped me all this while. One amongst them told me that they(The auto drivers) had a very strong union and were very particular about certain things like :-

1.Drinking and driving was a complete no-no and any driver found drunk while on duty had to pay a fine of Rs 1000 to the union fund.

2.Incase of an emergency like accident or a patient going to the hospital for some medical reason;the trip was free.The drivers did not charge any money from such people.

3.Incase a fellow driver was unwell;the other auto drivers contributed some money and ensured that their co-driver got himself treated in a good hospital.

I wish i could stand there and listen to some more of these kind acts of these drivers but i was already very late to the office .

God has his own way of making you realize certain things. After meeting these auto drivers and the one who returned my mobile i have only one thing to say:

'Small gestures by people can force you to change your thinking'.Afterall,Its time we stopped saying....'Yeh autowale toh aise hi hote hain.Inpe bharosa nahi kiya ja sakta!'

I was glad this thinking of mine had been proved wrong.

3 Cheers to these auto drivers....