The year is at the spring
The day is at the morn
The morning is at seven
The hillside is dew- pearled
And all is right with the world.

Though Robert Browning has written these lines to portray one fresh spring morning in Paris, on that day, I was actually experiencing the sparkle in the poem at Mumbai.
There was one more variation in my case; the ‘dew-pearled hillside’ was replaced by lustrous sky-scrappers at Hiranandani Gardens, Powai.

On that day, I was assigned the duty of an escort for the chief-guest of the national seminar arranged by my B-school.
The job-profile of ‘an escort’ included many responsibilities like welcoming the guest with bouquet (why me for this job yaar….? when there were enough pretty girls in my class…), taking care of his breakfast-lunch on the way (the event was in Pune ) etc…But the most important task was to ensure that the driver from car agency arrives on time at the guest’s place with the car and the guest reaches on time at the venue of the event.

The chief-guest’s residence was at marvelous Hiranandani Gardens…and I was in the parking waiting for both of them to arrive (the driver and the guest…!)
9950…. I dialed driver’s number. He was supposed to be here at 7.30.
“Good morning sir…Sandeep Singh here from Aryan travel agency….”
I somehow noticed two unusual things during this conversation spanning 2 seconds.
First thing was driver’s fluent English and other was his polite tone.
And yaah…the guy must be above fifty….that I could make out from his voice.
‘Sandeepjee…its 7.25 .when are you coming? ‘
‘Don’t worry sir…I am reaching there in 5 mins..’
Meanwhile the guest SMSed me that he’ll be late by 15-20 mins..
At 7.30 sharp, one car arrived. One elderly sardar (must be around 55-60 ..My guess was perfect!) wearing spotless white uniform got down from the car with a broad smile on his face.
I asked him "Sandeep sing …? "
“Yes sir…I am Sandeep…"
I shook his hands.
“I hope I’m not late…”
“No Sandeepji…you are perfectly on time.”
Then there was some awkward silence for few minutes. He was first to break it.
“Sirjee , what do you do ?“
“ Sandeepji.. I said ..I am pursuing MBA from Pune and please don’t call me sir. I am just 23 year old, much younger than you. You can call me by my first name …Chinmay”
He was little amazed.
I continued “Where are you from ...How long have you been in Mumbai? "
“We are originally from Lahore,Sirjee (again Sirjee !). My father came to Mumbai at the time of partition. Since then we are ‘मुम्बईकर..”
मुम्बईकर ? Nice to hear marathi word from a sardar.
So I just took a chance " मग तुम्हाला मराठी येते का? (So can you speak Marathi?)“
He gave me one more broad & innocent smile ( in fact all sardars have innocent smile...) and said " हो...एकदम शुद्ध मराठी येते.... " ( Yes, I can speak quite fluently)
Wow, that was cool !

The guest was taking a bit long . But I was having a good chat with Sandeepsingh in various languages …...
And we were discussing many matters like Mumbai rains, bomb blasts, traffic jams, Raj Thakre etc.
Meanwhile ….I was bit hungry. I took out Hide & Seek for me and also offered him. He was little hesitant initially but reluctantly took some cookies when I insisted.

After some time, suddenly, I noticed some tears in his eyes. I said “ क्या हुआ सन्दीपजी? ..is everything fine ? “
"सरजी... एक बात बोलता हू…I am working as a driver for many top executives for last 20 years. But no one treated me, the way you are treating me now. You are treating me with respect. You are talking to me, you even offered me something to eat…that’s very rare…"
“I did nothing special Sandeepji”
“See …you are calling me Sandeep'ji’ …”
“Obviously …cause you are quite elder than me..”
"आप उम्र मे छोटे है..... आपने अभीतक दुनिया ही कहा देखी है? लोग driver के साथ इतनी अच्छी बाते नही करते…मै तो केहता हू कि …बात ही नही करते… बस खाने के लिये ५०-१०० रुपये हाथ मे थमा देते है…....People behave as if we don’t exist in the car or the car is being driven by some machine. You know sirjee..... Most of the guys never spoke a single word with me in the long journey of 8-10 hours.तो अभी जब आपने हम से इतनी बाते की ...तो हमे बहोत अच्छा लगा जी… "

Now I was speechless.

Actually, his emotional response was beyond my comprehension at that time.

What did I do? Why he was so touched by the acts which according to me were quite obvious?
Do we treat human beings based on their occupation, position in the society? I think Yes, that’s why old Sandeepsingh felt overwhelmed by my simple acts and shed tears on that morning…