I was hurriedly walking down the corridor in office towards men’s room one fine morning. That morning had been really busy. I was swarmed with issues. As I was passing through the corridor I looked at the glass window and saw the raindrops over the glass. It was raining. “raining since yesterday” I whispered to myself. I stopped. The view outside the window was magnificent. I was mesmerized. Deeply engrossed in my act of looking outside the window, I was interrupted by a female voice. “Hi! How you doin?”. I turned around and saw a middle-aged lady standing and smiling. “Nice view outside”. I said yes. She left. Still standing and confused, I started asking myself in a quizzical manner.
“Do I know her”?
“No, I don’t”.
“Does she know me”?
“No she doesn’t”.
“She smiled at me so she must be knowing me. One doesn’t pass smiles to strangers or greet them”.
“No, she doesn’t know me”.
“Then why did she smile at me? Why did she greet me?”.
I realized later during the day that this is a gesture people follow in this part of the world. I witnessed numerous smiles that day. I heard numerous greetings by numerous people. I didn’t know any of those people. I wondered why nobody at home does that. Why neighbors in the same building are complete strangers? Passing smiles or greeting a lady would have surely gotten me sandals or butcher’s looks at the least!