Two amazing children

Two amazing children
CD Verma New Delhi, November 16, 2007 for The Hindustan Times

They were two youngsters, a brother and a sister. The boy aged 12 and the girl aged 15, were in school uniform. They were carrying heavy school satchels.

They behaved like children of respectable parents. Like us, they too were waiting for the bus. A state bus, bound for Chandigarh, arrived. The bus ploughed through the crowd, scattered the passengers helter-skelter and came to a screeching halt.

The commuters charged at the bus and scampered into it. In the flurry and scurry the two children patiently waited for their turn. They were the last to board. The youngsters occupied the seat in front of me. The girl handed over a 50-rupee note to me to pass it on to the conductor via other passengers, for two tickets to Ashram, New Delhi.

The note was handed over by commuters to the conductor, who in the same way dispatched the tickets and the balance amount back to the children. The gir1counted the balance returned by the conductor, looked at the value of the ticket, and counted the balance again.

Discovering that the conductor had returned Rs 1.50 in excess, she directed the younger brother to return the excess amount to the conductor The boy got up from his seat, slowly waded through the crowd of passengers, reached the conductor and returned it. The conductor nodded his head in appreciation.

All this while I watched the two in admiration. And so did the crowd. However, after some time the girl again started counting the money. On recalculation, she found that the conductor had in fact paid Rs 2.50 and not Rs 1.50 in excess.

She once again asked her brother to go to the conductor. The boy returned another rupee to the conductor. Their exemplary conduct caused a big whisper of approbation among the commuters who marveled at the conscientious youngsters. Spontaneously, I caressed their heads.

The kids responded with "Thank you." Then they got down at Ashram, leaving us philosophising about the moral 'sanskars' the children might have imbibed from their parents.