Stories of Kindness from Around the World

My friend Guri and I had just watched Santosh Sivan's, "The Terrriorist" that evening at the Pacific Arts Film Center on the UC Berkeley campus. Both of us were craving some Indian food after having seen the lead actress each dal and rice on film. So we headed over to the nearest Indian restaurant Naan & Curry. We chatted about various things such as the movie we just watched, our lives, and laughed a ton at one another's stories. Somewhere along the way the conversation turned into something more serious partly due to me. I spoke of my fears in particular my fear of being close to people. At some point through the conversation my eyes glanced around and low and behold the restuarant had closed, chairs were stacked on tables and only a few of us remained. Guri looked over at me and noticed my sudden relization. Without hesitation she said, "There are still people here, don't worry continue".

It must of been 15 minutes later that from the corner of my eye I see a young twenty-something guy walking toward our table. My first reaction was that he is coming over to ask us to leave since they had closed. But what he soon said had me and Guri looking at each other and saying, huh? He said that he overheard our conversation and wanted to put his two cents in if we didn't mind. I anxiously said yeah sure. He said, in my opinion I think you have an ideal definition of happiness, that when certain conditions are met you will be happy. But the truth is that no matter what is going on you still won't be happy. He said happiness is about right speech, right action, and right thought. If you focus on doing all these than the negative things will go away and the good ones will show up! I laughed and said wow, easier said than done, but certainly true! Guri and both thanked him for sharing his thoughts as he quickly left the restaurant.

Guri and I at that point had become two giggly girls overcome with happiness while still in aw. I looked over at Guri and said I wish I had a smile card to give him. I used my last one a couple of weeks ago. Guri without missing a beat pulls out one and asks me what can we tag him with? I said I think giving him the card may just be enough! We anxiously look out the window at the street trying to spot this stranger. Bullseye! There he was walking away from campus down Telegraph. We rushed out the restaurant smiling from ear to ear hoping to make a tag. We hopped, ran, skipped, and speed walked so we could catch up to this stranger who was 1 block ahead of us.

It was now or never as I crossed the street I yelled excuse me. He turned and smiled at us as he stoppped. I walked up to him along with Guri and gave him the smile card. Guri began to explain what the purpose of the card was. She explained that the next time he does some wonderful act he can leave this card behind! The stranger had begun to turn red as he introduced himself as Jesse. We introduced ourselves and said good-bye. As we walked away we smiled and laughed all the way back to the car. How the universe answers when you call upon it!!

Life is amazing! Thanks Jesse for sharing! You have no idea what that means to me. It's always interesting to see how people who don't know you at all see you or hear what you say. It gives you a new fresh perspective and reminds me what I'm putting out there in the world.