It was an unusual sight at the suburban bus stand in Mysore where I had come to meet a friend of mine. It had been quite some time since I met him. There were lots of buses waiting to ply passengers to their respective destinations. As I waited for him to come, one could feel the busyness of the place with hawkers trying to sell their eatables to the passengers and a bus conductor advertising to the other waiting passengers to check if they needed to go to the destination where the bus was heading to, Bangalore.
"Start the bus immediately and let us go. How long do we have to wait?" shouted one of the passengers from inside a waiting bus.
"Its already several minutes past the scheduled time" joined his co-passenger.
"I am waiting for the remaining seats to be filled and we cannot start the journey with empty seats still remaining" countered the bus conductor. I immediately could recollect my personal experiences and frustrations when I used to travel in one of these buses.
Just then, my friend called me up to let me know that he has just reached the bus station. We had been out of touch for a long time and it was a breath of fresh air to meet him again. He recently got married and we share a common understanding of life. I am open with my joys, struggles and weaknesses and so is he and his honesty is something I like in him. We quickly decided to go shopping and get a wedding gift for one of our common friends.
We rushed across the bus station maneuvering across the honking buses when suddenly I could feel a bus approaching towards me.
"Dont run over me again!" I yelled . The driver luckily did not hear it and my friend smiled and off we ran to the other side.
Together we completed our shopping and we were on our way back. We signalled a passing auto-rickshaw to stop. He seemed to be in quite a pace and applied the brakes stopping the vehicle at a distance. We ran and got near the vehicle and my friend started bargaining with the driver who demanded Rs 30.
"Rs 25 is the amount we paid for coming from the bus station to this place. We will pay you only the same price" said my friend.
"No sir, but the return trip is of a longer distance, as it is one-way traffic" argued the driver.
We agreed with the fare and soon we were travelling when suddenly my friend started a casual conversation with the driver.
"May I have your name, sir?" my friend seemed to ask,
"Ramesh" came the reply.
My spoke in a different language which I could not understand. I was staring at the busy traffic roads and trying to breathe in fresh air when suddenly I could understand what my friend was saying:
"Jesus Christ took all our curses at the cross. We need not pay for them again and we just need to believe in Him. For the sins we did with our hands, His hand was nail-pierced, for the sins we commited with our legs, his legs were nail-pierced and for our bad thoughts, His head was full of thorns. He had paid the price for them all with His blood"
Then he continued"May be you are going through a tough situation in your family and your family is broken, don't worry there is hope..."
All of a sudden, tears started running down the driver's face to such an extent that the he had to stop his vehicle and wipe his tears. It seemed that he indeed was going through a tough situation at home. We continued our journey and finally reached our destination. The whole journey would have lasted just 5 minutes but I was stunned that a well built man in his 40's with a big moustache would have a broken heart desperately needed to be mended. After my friend finished with a consoling word of prayer, one could only be overwhelmed and feel drawn to be a solace to the hurting, the sorrowful and the poor.
Jesus christ said" Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest". There is no place that is safer than being in and experiencing His presence.
"Start the bus immediately and let us go. How long do we have to wait?" shouted one of the passengers from inside a waiting bus.
"Its already several minutes past the scheduled time" joined his co-passenger.
"I am waiting for the remaining seats to be filled and we cannot start the journey with empty seats still remaining" countered the bus conductor. I immediately could recollect my personal experiences and frustrations when I used to travel in one of these buses.
Just then, my friend called me up to let me know that he has just reached the bus station. We had been out of touch for a long time and it was a breath of fresh air to meet him again. He recently got married and we share a common understanding of life. I am open with my joys, struggles and weaknesses and so is he and his honesty is something I like in him. We quickly decided to go shopping and get a wedding gift for one of our common friends.
We rushed across the bus station maneuvering across the honking buses when suddenly I could feel a bus approaching towards me.
"Dont run over me again!" I yelled . The driver luckily did not hear it and my friend smiled and off we ran to the other side.
Together we completed our shopping and we were on our way back. We signalled a passing auto-rickshaw to stop. He seemed to be in quite a pace and applied the brakes stopping the vehicle at a distance. We ran and got near the vehicle and my friend started bargaining with the driver who demanded Rs 30.
"Rs 25 is the amount we paid for coming from the bus station to this place. We will pay you only the same price" said my friend.
"No sir, but the return trip is of a longer distance, as it is one-way traffic" argued the driver.
We agreed with the fare and soon we were travelling when suddenly my friend started a casual conversation with the driver.
"May I have your name, sir?" my friend seemed to ask,
"Ramesh" came the reply.
My spoke in a different language which I could not understand. I was staring at the busy traffic roads and trying to breathe in fresh air when suddenly I could understand what my friend was saying:
"Jesus Christ took all our curses at the cross. We need not pay for them again and we just need to believe in Him. For the sins we did with our hands, His hand was nail-pierced, for the sins we commited with our legs, his legs were nail-pierced and for our bad thoughts, His head was full of thorns. He had paid the price for them all with His blood"
Then he continued"May be you are going through a tough situation in your family and your family is broken, don't worry there is hope..."
All of a sudden, tears started running down the driver's face to such an extent that the he had to stop his vehicle and wipe his tears. It seemed that he indeed was going through a tough situation at home. We continued our journey and finally reached our destination. The whole journey would have lasted just 5 minutes but I was stunned that a well built man in his 40's with a big moustache would have a broken heart desperately needed to be mended. After my friend finished with a consoling word of prayer, one could only be overwhelmed and feel drawn to be a solace to the hurting, the sorrowful and the poor.
Jesus christ said" Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest". There is no place that is safer than being in and experiencing His presence.
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