Look Up- To Us

• The rhythm of the local train, lulled me to blissful unawareness. I was half asleep when I heard loud squeals. As I came to, I noticed a child with her mother had boarded the train and were sitting right opposite me. As the child ripped open the packet of chips and stuffed her mouth with junk, she kept chattering. Once she was done, her dress, hands and mouth all messy, she folded up the empty packet, dusted herself clean and promptly deposited the piece of garbage into her mother's purse. There's hope afterall.
  
• As I impatiently awaited my bus to show up at the bus stop, a long queue had snaked up to the end of nowhere. A bully next to me thought it of utmost importance to paint the concrete roads with his bright red beetle nut flavoured spit. Constantly, once, twice, thrice.. "Excuse me, why do you keep ruining our infrastructure? What pleasure do you derive from that?" I asked in Hindi. "How is it any of your business? How about you STFU and behave like a woman rather than questioning a man?" he responded in the most sexist, suggestive and offensive tone possible. All around, the young, the old and the middle aged gave him a piece of their mind, not raising their voice, letting their opinion out- ranging from cleanliness to respecting women to speaking respectfully to people to not ruining the country's image. There's hope afterall.
• When I see women of all age groups being groped in crowded places and teased publicly, I feel sad that none of them are able to or even want to raise their voice against it. It fills me with pride when I see women standing up for themselves as soon as they have been humiliated by their attackers, not sparing a single thought to "What will people think of me if I create a scene despite the fact that I've been wronged?" There's hope afterall.
• The week long apprehensions got the better of me. I couldn't think straight of what I was going to do, how I was going to bring up the subject and let it all out. I finally did it. I went up to my parents and said "I am joining kick boxing classes. It starts in two days." While my father gave me a "Good, it'll build your stamina!", my mother gave me a "Great! Good for your health and you learn some self defense. Have fun!" While I was left stunned at their response, my mind gave me a nudge toward There's hope afterall.
• When my uncles and aunts, distant and close are all up in my business with questions ranging from "When are you getting married?", "Are your parents looking for someone?", "How many kids do you want?", When do you want to settle down?", my grandmother shushes them up with a "She can do whatever she wants, don't annoy her with marriage questions now. That is for her to decide!" There's hope afterall.
• When I see the cleaning lady at my office everyday, toiling away so she can put her children through school, I feel proud. The feeling is inexplicable when at the end of every month, she comes to me with a shy smile and once I handover her pay cheque, her eyes shine at the prospect of signing her name on the register. There's hope afterall.

There's always hope- for a better life, for a better set of thoughts, for a better generation, for a better nation, for a better us, for a better person to look up to.