Little Words of Love

"I don't know what's wrong with the people around?" Basu murmured as he scratched his bald head. "I wonder whether they are actually human or not."

My colleague Manimay Basu used to bang in through the door of our office, in the same way, every morning. On some days, he used to complain about the terrible traffic and on others it was the hike in the price of oil.

"What happened, Basu?" I threw a quick glance at him as he settled down in the adjacent cubicle, while my fingers kept tapping on the keyboard.

"You know what?" Basu flashed an angry stare at me, "I was looking for a space to park my car. And do you know what a college kid say as he passed by?"

"What?" My eyes were fixed on the screen of my laptop as my fingers raced on the keyboard.

"Hey, there is lot of space over there, baldie!" Basu's face was red hot with indignation. "And then there is Mrs. Sharma, our colleague."

"What did she say?" I regretfully admitted that his earlier remark did make me chuckle.

"I had helped her with her pending jobs when she was not well. And now, when I'm in need of her help, she has backed out!"

Basu hissed his vengence out in the form of a furious sigh.

"Hell!" I took my hands off the keyboard and slid back on my chair.

I closed my eyes as agony burdened me. My thoughts ran back to those good old days when the world seemed like a heaven. I remembered the lines from my grandma's favorite poem.

"Little deeds of kindness

Little words of love

Makes the earth as happy

Like the heaven above"

"Basu," I opened my eyes and looked at him, "if anyone behaves rudely with you teach him how to be polite. If you ever come across the college kid again say, 'thank you gentleman.' Do good and be good to all those who were not so to you. Believe me Basu, that's the best possible response to negativity. Otherwise, an eye for an eye is going to make the whole world blind."

Basu silently looked at me with a wide agape mouth for a brief moment.

"Maybe," Basu scratched his head again, "you are right."