Bir colony is a one-street
town. Each day I spent there, I walked
down this main street – in search of biscuits, internet and exercise (relating
to the biscuits). One day I ventured
almost all the way down the street with a new friend, only to have my
flip-flops give out before we reached the café.
Fiona led me to a shoemaker she knew, who deftly threaded some thick
twine through the plastic of my shoe, making two minutes work of the task. Thrilled, I asked the man, dusty and
crouching over his kit, how much I owed him for the repair. His answer? Nothing. In fact, he refused all of my attempts at compensating him for his skill.
Leaving his shop and all through
the day I was humbled by this. Here was
a man who had far less than I did, who was insistent on doing me a favour. The fee for his task would be less than I
would spend on a snack, but would have far greater utility for him. Hailing from a place where every skill is a tradable
commodity, it felt unfamiliar and uncomfortable to be given something by a
complete stranger. Searching for the
best way to describe this, I came up with grace. Grace embodies the spirit that gives without
expectation of return, without reference to economic disparity and is instead inspired
by the commonality of human experiences.
Days later in Delhi, I was struck
again by this spirit. Planning to pay
for my day room by credit card, two failed attempts at my PIN had brought me
within one try of not having access to any money. Frantic, I tried to call the bank using the guest
computers. However, despite being loaded
with Skype and equipped with earphones, the computer microphones were not
registering my voice. My 3am
international flight loomed in the distance.
Desperate, I asked them to swipe my card instead. Remarkably, this was successful and at last I
was ready to load my things into the waiting taxi. The staff, witnessing the meteoric rise of my
blood pressure, reassured me that everything would be alright. As if to bolster this assertion, they presented
me with a Pepsi and a large bottle of water to take on my way. The day had been filed with touts and pushy
young men on the sweltering streets of Delhi but on my way to the airport, as I
watched the lights of the city block out the stars with their flickering, it
was once again inescapable: grace.
