My first visit to the USA was in the year 1989 in the month of May. My wife accompanied me on that visit and we visited many places. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and had many good experiences. One such experience was at New York.
One day, we had our lunch in a downtown restaurant in New York. I am in the habit of eating fruits after my meals but we found that getting fruits from the restaurant was very expensive, more so when every dollar was important to us. We had seen many fruit sellers on the streets of New York and so decided to buy a fruit from them. As we came out of the restaurant with that intention, we saw one person selling plums. He was left with only a small quantity and so we expected a good price from him. Moreover, he was looking like an Asian.
As I and my wife were conversing in Hindi, the fruit seller was listening to us and, perhaps, could also guess our nationality. When we bought two pieces of plums from him and asked for the price, he gave us a very pleasing smile. He said that there was no need of paying as they were neighbours. Elaborating further, he continued that he was from Pakistan while we were from India. Another reason perhaps was the small quantity he was left with. But this was not so important to us as was the fact of our being neighbours. We were deeply touched by his gesture and he did not accept any money even after being insisted a few times. We also took his offer with respect and gratitude.
Thereafter, we exchanged some more pleasantries and parted. This small incident comes to my mind quite often. I feel that in the name of development and progress we are forgetting to communicate with our neighbours or even our family members. This is giving rise to various conflicts and lack of true happiness. We realise this only when we are far away from them and feel lonely. This fruit seller gave me a very pleasant lesson of life by offering two plums as a gift from a neighbour, whom we consider our enemy. For me, it was much more than a plum or aloo bukhara as we call it in Hindi.
