Being Kind

I am not a big Shah Rukh Khan fan, but I love the way he is anchoring the show, Kaun Banega Crorepati. Since KBC was earlier hosted by Amitabh Bachhan, every one is busy comparing Shah Rukh to Amitabh. I suppose one thing that stands out like an elephant is the kindness of Shah Rukh. Not that Amitabh wasn’t kind, he was kind too but that was more formal. Shah Rukh is being kind to the contestants like he has known them for a long time. It’s anyone’s guess as to how many watches he is going to be giving away like this!

Kindness obviously is a nice thing isn’t it? Everybody likes it when the other person speaks to you well, understands what you are going through, is there for you when you want him to be there, helps you with the bags, advises you even before you have shared the problem. That said, kindness also comes from unknown quarters when one is least expecting it. I remember this one incident that happened somewhere in a small little town of Tamil Nadu. I had boarded a town bus to get to another place. The place where I got into the bus was full of people that day as a weekly fair was organized there. As you would expect under such circumstances, the bus was over flowing with tamil speaking, simple village & town folk. In such a scenario I was offered a seat by an ageing woman. She preferred to sit on the floor of the bus instead. My limited knowledge of the tamil language let me down at that moment and I was struggling to tell her that it was nice of her to do that, but I would rather stand than take the seat from her. Amidst the smell of sweat, sand & fish that was emanating from the bus, the old woman just waved her hand down at me & asked me to sit down. Probably my city bred mannerisms & appearance and the very visible awkwardness that I was feeling at that time, led to such an act of kindness.

As a contrast, a former colleague called me recently. I was surprised that he actually called as I hadn’t heard from him since the time he left the company. No greetings, no Hi – Hello, he got straight to the point. He had an issue with some post exit task. When I expressed my inability to sort the issue out immediately, he asked for the line to be transferred to the senior person. I promptly did that and hung up. The brief conversation left a bad feeling. Absolutely no courtesy was displayed whatsoever, so much for knowing him for over 15 months and being lunch partners while we were colleagues, I thought.

Being kind is something that doesn’t come to everybody and frankly it requires a big heart to be kind. At a time when reality based shows like Kamzor Kadi Kaun, Big Boss, Celebrity Big Brother, Indian Idol, MTV Roadies & so on are showcasing rude behavior and we are beginning to accept it as part & parcel of life, comes Shah Rukh Khan with KBC. Suddenly things are beginning to look positive & happy yet again….at least on TV.