Friday, September 25, 2009

Walking Dustbins

This post is inspired by this article. After reading this post i remembered a forward which visited my inbox many times
Beware of Garbage Trucks
How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive employee ruin your day? However, the mark of a successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on what's important. David J. Pollay explains his story in this way…. Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end by just inches! The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean…he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, "The Law of the Garbage Truck." "Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did." I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people: at work, at home, on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do it anymore." Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't. Believe that everything happens for a reason. Never let the garbage truck run over you.

I dont know if this article is copyrighted. Also dont know the origin of this article to quote the author here.
But whatever is written in it is pretty true. People have the tendency to dump their waste on somebody else. Its really surprising and depressing to see the tone of emails received by Inji in the above mentioned link. There is a general conviction that educated people are well behaved. Are they really? I have seen a guy in our flat abusing the security man almost everyday. This guy is working in some MNC. He belongs to the educated class. But his behaviour doesn't belong there. People say noble behaviour comes from proper up bringing. But exceptions can be seen there too. Its a sad plight. That post left me really sad :(