The Christmas Cake!

It was 25^th December 2012 and my first Christmas miles away from my home, Kolkata. I used to stay in a four-sharing room in a ladies hostel at my workplace Hyderabad. All my roomies being college-goers and having a long holiday ahead went to their respective hometowns which were just few hours away from the city. And there I was, sitting alone in my room, ruminating the wonderful memories of every Christmas spent earlier at my hometown which is always buzzing with various activities during this time. I tried music and reading to divert my mind away but nothing seem to work that day.

My eyes had already started welling-up when suddenly I heard a knock on the door. Controlling myself, I went and opened the door. Outside, I found a girl of my age standing with our hostel owner Uncle accompanied by bags.”She is your new roommate”, said Uncle. I called them inside. In the next few minutes, Uncle showed her the room and described the hostel details while I was back to myself again. Uncle left and the girl sat, unpacking her things slowly. She looked quite sad which is very common for any new girl in hostel. But there was a very uneasy kind of silence in her which I couldn’t fathom. As I was also not quite in mood that day, even I remained aloof and started reading.

Quite a few moments passed quietly. “Hi, this is for you. My Mom baked,” I was taken aback by the abrupt sound and looked up to see the girl holding a piece of cake towards me. “Thanks”, I said, adding again,” I am Shawna,” to which the girl replied,” My name is Grace Reshma. I have come here for Gate coaching whose classes are starting tomorrow itself and so I had to rush today without getting to complete our Christmas celebrations”, she continued saying while bringing out a Bible from her bag,” My Mom bakes a cake every Christmas and we share the same with our family members and friends”, and I could feel her almost on the verge of tears. Still I couldn’t say anything as she said,” So, I thought of sharing this with you”, and smiled at me with morose eyes. I took a small bite of the cake.” It’s delicious,” I replied back,” with the perfect Christmas flavour as well”, finding nothing else to say and finished the whole piece. “Can I borrow some more?”, I asked her and that was the first time I saw her face brighten up like anything.”Sure”, she said and we both finished the cake that evening, chatting and laughing with all the heaviness in our heart melting away. And the two unknown girls although separated by geography, religion and language, yet, equally pained by distance from home on an occasion like Christmas soon befriended based on the bond of the Christmas Cake! That Christmas gifted me a good friend indeed (and definitely the cake!) and though we are not staying in that hostel together anymore, we are very much in contact till this day.

Yes, They Exist!

This is a very small incident of my life but I felt that I should share this particular experience of mine. I am presently working as a Deputy Manager in a nationalized bank in Hyderabad. Hence, I am in charge of Safe Keys holding important branch related documents of my branch. Once it so happened that we got very late while working in the branch and I hurriedly left thereafter suddenly reminded of the time while my Branch Manager was still working as she stayed nearby. After I reached home, immediately I received a call from my Branch Manager that I had not locked the safe, which she checked while closing the branch and the keys were with me. Therefore, there was no option for me other than to go back again and lock the same, as it was very crucial for a bank.

Annoyed with myself, I gingerly left home but as my bad luck prevailed, I was not able to get an auto to take me to my branch since it was quite late. Finally, I saw an auto, which I believe, was on its way back home but stopped after watching me standing helplessly and the driver immediately offered to drive me there with extra charge. I almost jumped in but the moment I got in, I started suspecting the over-eager behavior of this auto driver given the time at night. He however drove me to my branch where my BM was waiting with the Watchman. We locked the safes, checked everything and finally left the branch. My BM asked me about how I’ll go back home to which I readily replied, ”Ma’am , I’ll manage”(with the ” We are self-sufficient independent girls you see” attitude hardly having an idea of how I was going to manage), bade her “Good Night” and left in search of auto again.

I didn’t have to wait long as the same auto came along. This time I was seriously scared regarding the intentions of the auto driver with the thoughts of all the unpleasant incidents happening throughout India cropping up in mind whereas, I should have been happy at the thought that I won’t be facing any problem in returning home. Reluctantly, having no other way out, I boarded the auto and immediately started talking over phone to my parents back at Kolkata and kept the phone on throughout the time I was in the auto just as a precautionary measure. The auto however went on to drop me to my residence safely and I came out greatly relieved. I then paid the driver who thanked me and drove away. And sooner I realized that I should thank him back too for being such a Good Samaritan for me that night but it was too late I guess and even if I replied back, “ Thank You bhaiyya!”, I doubt whether he had heard that as the auto sped up soon thereafter. Staying and working alone in a big city, far away from home especially in India and for girls like me indeed becomes a challenge sometimes but amidst the bunch of disheartening experiences around, this incident always reminds me of the fact that the world still has ‘these’ people today who enable us to harness hopes in today’s world.

Never stop trusting. Never stop believing. Cheers!