How often have you walked up to a stranger and said “Hi…” ? How often do you think you have maintained that smile on your face instinctively when speaking to some one you never knew? Do you put your ego and inhibitions above camaraderie? ….It’s been a year since I switched from the aged Company busses to the mostly frantically driven Company cabs, and nothing exciting seemed to have happened since then, except for the fact that cabs were more comfortable and dropped me home faster than the busses. But the comfy part soon faded when more and more of our breed were stuffed into less and less reliable cabs. Nevertheless, more members in the cab meant less room for complacency and more room for conversations . And if company meant a good looking lady, then the journey couldn’t have been more enjoyable.. ;).
It was on one such occasion when I had the privilege of being in the early morning shift for my project (privilege because I get to go home by 4 in the evening Everyday) and one of those rare honours of having a graceful lady being picked up by the same cab as mine, that I managed to add up a “H” and an “i” into a beautiful alliance. I will refer to this smart and interesting lady as Cherry.
Getting back home one evening at 4 in a jam packed cab with Cherry beside me, I mustered the courage and said “Hi…” with a smile, hoping to be returned the greeting without being jeered at by her.
Cherry : “Hi..” (smiling )
Me : So..where are you from, Cherry?
Cherry : I’m from Banre, but was educated partly in Coimtore… Where are you from?
Me : I’m from Banre too…. Pretty jam packed cab, eh?
Cherry : Yeah ( making a frustrated face .. looking cute :) )
Me : Blah blah…
Cherry : Blah Blah…
And so went the conversation on and on till the time came for her to alight at J Street. After exchanging our Goodbyes, I got thinking about this encounter. What did it take for me to be know her? Just a smile and a Hi… and the will to put myself before my ego and extend my greeting with an intention to break the reticence so common in most of us. I am grateful that I took this step and 4 months since, we have discovered most of our interests, some of them common, lunched together, watched movies together and now share a great friendship.
There are more instances. This approach helped me make new friends with a gentleman from the Navy( trust me, he was in my Organization for some time ); a guy who is ready to trade his job for higher studies; another dude whose passion is to travel and gather info about supercars; a person from the clientele who happens to share my hometown and prefers Indian Ghazals over Metallica and Deep Purple, among others. The point is, I did what I believed will help me break the ice..and I suggest we do it once a while when we meet people and do it when the time is right, like when you travel or get off the bus early in the morning, or when you come out for lunch in office, for it is at these times that all of us are relaxed and relieved of work for a little while and are open to something outside the box. What’s more, you could discover that you were sitting on the Pandora’s box of joy, waiting to be unleashed all this while..
Cheers!!
