A Punch and a 'Punch' Card

Was waiting outside the The Dosa Brothers on 2nd & Market on a beautiful day. The wait time was around 15 minutes. Enough time for a ginger chai. All was good. Out of nowhere, a random lady was walking towards the crowd waiting eagerly for their Dosas. She was yelling explitieves and stormed towards a lady talking on her phone and BOOM - Punches her right on her nose and vanishes in a lightening speed.  The rest of the crowd including me was busy on our phones, saving the world, so it took us about 5 seconds to know what happened. The poor lady was shaking and still in shock about what happened. One by one people started to console her and gave her a second to realize what happened. She got dozen hugs from random people all around, all of us apologized for what had happened to her and for the fact that we could not be of any help. A lady even advised her to go talk to her Doctor to make sure this incident does not haunt her in the future. The Dosa lady felt so sorry for her and gave her a free Chai and (ironically) a ‘punch' card coupon for a free Dosa worth $12 and more importantly topped it with a priceless hug and a sorry.

Made me realize that for every single crazy person out there, San Fran balances herself with a dozen kind hearted ones. Good > Crazy.

Death by Thousand Corrects

Rahul was very depressed. He would stand before the mirror every day and cry for 30 minutes.  He had every thing going for him. He was smart, had a caring family, had a well paying job, but still on top of his head, he still felt like his life lacked the color that that he had few years before. 

That day he decided that he cannot take this anymore.  He thought the world was unfair towards him. His door bell rang. There was this Amazon package with brand new set of knifes with shiny black handles along with few other items.  “Oh God, are you with me on my decision?” he cannot help but think.  He turned on his TV, and out of nowhere, there was this Guru giving a speech about how meaningless one's life would be without the colors that nature had to offer.  This was getting way too coincidental for him.  On his head, taking away all the misery and greyness in his life was the best available option he had . 

He stood in front of the mirror and talked to himself crying "Rahul, there is no way out for your depressed life.  Just die.  You cannot survive in this judging world which sees things simply as black and white.  People die everyday, they are not cowards.  They are just being practical and they teach the world a lesson for being mean.  Just die Rahul.  This is it. Just die"

He took the Amazon box he picked up minutes before.  There it was waiting for him to take them on his hands and cut it open.  He opened the brand new box of Godrej Nature Care hair dye that his wife ordered for him along with the knife set. Greyness was about to become a thing of the past on his life.

Did I say die? Stupid Autocorrect!

Seat Reservations!

Today during my train commute, I had a lady come sit beside me and she was immediately uncomfortable. She looked around and switched to another seat in the same car.  I didn't care.

Next a dude came in and sat for 2 seconds and started looking out for other available seats.  He made the walk to next train car to find a spot.

This happened again and same reaction from that lady as well.  I was very upset. I started sniffing my clothes in desperation.  Nothing. I could not get why people will just walk away after sitting beside me for 2 seconds.  It made me upset, sad and to some extent neglected - even though we are talking about total strangers. I almost wanted to stop them and ask what the hell is wrong with this seat or me!

I wanted some answers.  I looked back. There was a homeless man sitting beside me (he must have sat there after I boarded).  He had 8 layers of clothing on him and from the looks of it he would not have showered for a week minimum.

He gave me a look and had a grin on his face, as if telling me that "dude..now you feel what I have to go through every day, on top of not having no money, food or place to shower?".  I could not stand the 2 minutes of neglect from total strangers.  I realized he goes through that as a daily job.

I quietly switched my seat and sat beside him.  I also thanked god for taking away all my smell sensors cause I could not smell a thing, even as the new person who occupied my old seat could retain his seat for just 1 minute!

PS-  I'm hoping the homeless dude is not writing the same post about me. You know, it could still be me. I'm very confused.