empathy

empathy

this happened way back in 2004 when i was attending a kind of personality development course, in the evenings.

that day, before class, we students, had decided to order bhelpuri / sevpuri from the road stall vendor on the way back to church gate station.

now it so happened, that, in that particular class tht day, we had an assignment. wherein we were told to be totally silent, for the what remained of the day or rather night...unless it was a matter of life and death, we were not supposed to use words to communicate anything with anybody.

After the day's class, when we reached Churchgate station, , i remembered about our bhelpuri tryst.

I stopped near the stall as agreed. my friends gave me a look of u are not supposed to talk..i gave an il manage smile.

i stopped at the vendor, pointed out to the bhel and stuff, to place the orders..bhel puri or sev puri as per our requirements. i was giving the orders, using my facial expressions and gesturing with my hands and fingers.

which is when an interesting thing happened.The bhel puri walla who could talk, also started using gestures instead of words just like me.

the whole transaction between him and me, ended without any exchange of words.

if a thousand words would not have explained to me what empathy was , this single gesture of the bhel puri walla made me understand what empathy was.

empathy was becoming a mute  person along with another mute person.
whether the experts agree or disagree, for me this is empathy.