Mihir and his train journey from Surat to Ahmedabad :)

Posted by Sheetal Sanghvi on Nov 20, 2015


In the opening circle of our ongoing Moved by Love retreat, we posed the following question to the participants "Could you please share a story of a time when you experienced "being the change?". Though I was deeply touched by many of the stories, Mihir's story in particular, brought a huge smile on my face as it is a situation I face often during my own journeys. Here is Mihir's story, in his own words:

I'm geared up for attending my first MBL retreat in Ahmedabad, and am waiting for the train to arrive at Surat train station. Its delayed a bit, and from the looks of it, there are a lot of people who are going to get onto this train from here.

Finally the train arrives, and everyone scrambles to stand outside their allocated coach, anxious to get in. I happen to be the first in the queue. As the train comes to a halt, passengers start alighting the coach I'm supposed to get on. Almost the entire coach is getting off, and they have a lot of luggage. This results in the process taking a long time...and the crowd waiting to get on the train is getting restless. They start shouting & urging the passengers alighting the train to hurry up. The passengers getting down start arguing back, and things get heated.

I am in the middle of all this, and suddenly the realization strikes that hey, I'm not separate from what is going on there. I am that! The commotion within is not different from the one without and the truth is, I have contributed to this conflict in ways which may not be apparent right away.

So the question arises - what should I do here, now? How do I alleviate the situation? Due to the urgency of the situation, the mind doesn't get a chance to play its tricks. I immediately start helping the alighting passengers get their bags out of the coach. This speeds up the process, and soon the passengers exit. I then let many of the passengers behind me get on the train first. Soon we are all inside & the train leaves the platform.

I sense that the atmosphere is charged with negative energy. People are saying how "the others" were so insensitive & callous and how much stress those few minutes caused them. Parents were scolding their children and spouses - each other. Again the question popped up in my mind - what can I do here, now? How can I deal with this flow of negative energy? The mind could come up with no answer.

Just then, I see a tea seller entering the compartment. I call him and give him some money, and tell him to serve tea to all the passengers in the coach and if anyone asks, he should tell them that it's from him for free. He laughs in disbelief, but I insist. He tells me this is crazy. I ask him to do it anyway. He hesitantly starts serving the tea to the passengers one by one, some of whom are taken aback and wonder what is going on? Some reject it, some take the tea but then talk in a hushed tone something along the lines of "this is weird, be careful". And some are pleasantly surprised and thank the chai wala.

As more and more passengers see this happening, they start feeling that the guy is genuinely doing this out of kindness. The commentary in their minds changes & therefore their expressions change from "how painful it is to deal with others" to "Hey, its not all that bad, there are people like this chai wala too!" Their defense mechanism is relaxed, the minds quieten and the negative energy is transformed. The chai wala is experiencing this first-hand and seems to be perceiving the impact of it. He reaches the other end of the coach, looks at me and smiles. Not a word gets exchanged between us, but I feel a deeper communication has taken place.

As for me, I feel a deep sense of gratitude for having experienced what communion probably feels like.

(I have used a picture from another train journey when I meet these incredible women who did something similar to Mihir :)) 

Posted by Sheetal Sanghvi on Nov 20, 2015 | permalink


Share A Comment
 Your Name: Email:


Previous Comments
  • Drishti wrote ...

    Wow this is a beautiful story :)

  • Tharanath wrote ...

    Powerful, Indeed...Sometimes you dont need words to understand the depth..You just know..

  • Harsh wrote ...

    Wohow!!!! Incredible. Thank you Mihir for allowing yourself this space.

  • Swara wrote ...

    Mihir, You rock! You are awesome. This is just amazing :)

  • Ragu wrote ...

    Yes, this is wisdom - spontaneous intelligence. People have all things inside them, negative and positive. Whatever channel gets opened up calls forth those qualities. Thanks Mihir.

  • Sachi wrote ...

    Thank you for sharing this ! Beautiful :) such presence of mind and authenticity in this whole experiment :) inspired and lovin it!

  • Ambika wrote ...

    Beautiful :)

  • arpit wrote ...

    Awesome brother .....👌

  • Prarthana wrote ...

    It just takes a smile to make the whole world laugh... How inspiring, I can feel the dynamiv shift :)
    Truly Beautiful!

  • satwinder wrote ...

    Wonderul and so inspirational.

  • Deepak wrote ...

    Thank you Mihir for being who you were . Creating goodness and moving on without any expectations .

  • Kishan wrote ...

    Pratibha visited Seva Cafe today to volunteer and before going up she had some time so she thought of visiting the shops in municipal market, opposite Seva Cafe. While shopping, she remembered Mihir bhai and his Chai story and thought what she can do for the vendor there and she asked if she can buy tea for them. Apparently the vendor didi asked for ice-cream and Pratibha looked for some ice-cream vendor and located the Havmor like shop and got one of the best ice-cream available there and offer  See full.

    Pratibha visited Seva Cafe today to volunteer and before going up she had some time so she thought of visiting the shops in municipal market, opposite Seva Cafe. While shopping, she remembered Mihir bhai and his Chai story and thought what she can do for the vendor there and she asked if she can buy tea for them. Apparently the vendor didi asked for ice-cream and Pratibha looked for some ice-cream vendor and located the Havmor like shop and got one of the best ice-cream available there and offered it to Didi. This didi couldn't believe looking at the ice-cream and thanking her from the bottom of her heart asked what was the need to buy such a costly ice-cream. Two of them got together and offered her some gifts, and the earning (20 rs) from the product Pratibha had bought but Pratibha refused either of it. Overwhelmed, they told her to connect with them if Pratibha needs any help in any scenario. Not knowing what to do and how to express what she felt, with a hug Pratibha departed and while doing her volunteering duty (of greeting guests at Seva Cafe) from the glasses near entrance she could look at two of the new family members (whom she would meet / remember / pray for whenever she would be next in Ahmedabad) and started sending her love to them !

    While listening to her sharing her experiences, I was pondering how many such unshared / untold experiences and emotions are generating and spreading and felt deep love for all ! Fortunately in our small impromptu circle we had Drishti along with Prarthana, Devesh and Ankita. Drashti shared about the experiences she had in Surat, the beautiful experiments she facilitated (I shall say mentored) with Nipul bhai's young one's along with Krishna following that the time she spent in Rajkot the magic Neerad bhai and Sheetal ben are creating there. I also recollected the amazing see off we had at the airport while we were shouting with heart - Jai Jagat !!! Truly the spirit of Jai Jagat is

    Bolo re bhagat - Jai Jagat :)

    With love and gratitude
    Kishan

    Hide full comment.

  • Idris wrote ...

    Amazing!! Compels us to think rather than bein a part of the negativity how we can turn the situation into a positive one by looking around and using whatever is available to you

  • Chintak wrote ...

    Thank you Mihir for your motivating experience. It's amazing. :)