The other day, I was unloading stuff from my car. I tend to try to carry everything at once, what with being lazy, and impatient, so I was pretty well dropping the ball, so to speak. From the balcony overlooking the parking lot of our apartment building a young girl was watching. She jumped up, and said out loud, “I can help you!”
In a few seconds, she came out of the door, and was there helping me. She picked up the stuff I dropped, and then held the door, and then took my keys and opened my apartment door. Cheerful, and happy, not to mention beautiful, it was a genuine pleasure to meet such a kind, and polite child. (I was a just short of telling her that she could not go on entering stranger’s apartments without her mother’s knowledge, when her brother arrived, bringing the last of my stuff from the parking lot.)
So, the kids leave, I unpack, and then I decide that I should recognize the kindness of strangers, especially in a kid. So, I look around for something to show my appreciation. I find a recently printed photo of the planet Saturn, which I happen to have. Cool, just the thing. I go upstairs, knock on the door, and when the mom, and kids answer, I explain to mom what lovely children she has. I give the young lady the picture, and suggest that she might take it to school, where her teacher can explain to her about the Cassini Project, and Saturn, and stuff.
So, mom is ecstatic. She invites me in, we talk, she ends up coming down to see my place, and we talk more. She is newly immigrated from India, and her accent is fairly strong, but entirely understandable. (That extreme precision of construction so typical of Hindi speakers, you know?) She says they know no one at all in the area, in fact, almost no one in the entire country. She is effusive in her thanks for the silly picture. She is very lonely.
OK, next day, I talk with my friend at work. My friend is also Indian, speaks Hindi as a native, and is very active in the local Indian culture community, as well as having extensive contacts in India and other American cities. She also brings me pepper from Malabar for free, every year when it is first marketed. We are very good friends. I figure, hey, here is a contact for the lady upstairs. So, I describe the meeting. I ask my work friend who could be a contact for my new friend among the Hindi culture here in the area.
She gives me a look. “Who else?” she says with mock offense in her voice. “You are my brother, so the friends of my brother are my friends!” Wow. I just got a sister. So, I take her phone number, give it to my new friend. She is delighted. Right away, she invites me in again, we talk. The next day, she wants to tell me about her conversation on the phone, and I tell her I have already heard from my work friend all about it. She says, “So, now your sister is my Aunt, and you are my Godfather.”
Wow.
So, is this a culture thing, or have I just hit the two friendliest folks in the world? It was only a picture and a phone call. I haven’t really done anything all that nice.
Tris
