The old lady, the conductor, the girl in the bus.

Right after getting off the train, I would look for this homeless old lady from China and talk to her, every day. After listening to her talking about how she is thinking of a way to EARN money properly, I left to wait for the bus. When the bus arrived, this other old lady, who is in charge of conducting the traffic for people to, orderly, board was shouting and giving out instructions. All I can see was her, waving her hands around and shouting. After a few minutes listening to her, I begin to realize that she wasn't just shouting at people so they can hear her instructing. She was shouting at people complaining about how miserable her life is. I felt bad for her. So I said to her "Sabarlah kak." (Sis, take it easy.) This was what I meant. But she thought I asked her to be patient. So her reply to me was "BOLEHKAH SAYA SABAR?! HARI-HARI JAM 4 PAGI BERDIRI DI SINI SAMPAI JAM 10 MALAM, TAK BOLEH TIDUR PUN! MACAM MANA NAK SABAR?! TAK ADA ORANG KASIAN SAYA JUGA!!!" (How can I take it easy when I have to reach here at 4am every morning to stand here until 10pm at night? I don't even get to sleep! Take it easy?! No one would pity me anyway!) After everybody was settled in, she gave us a briefing about the new bus system that has taken effect since the first day of the month. Everyone was tired and grumpy, wanted to go home ASAP. She repeated her speech three times, which got everyone impatient. This one girl standing next to me was giving "the face".

I was thinking to myself...

Hmm... What are the conductor and the girl in the bus complaining about? The old China lady, who has nothing at all (no job, no house, no food, with just a blanket to keep herself from freezing to death in the streets), is trying to find a way for herself to earn money because she is sick of feeling ashamed whenever people put money in to her empty cup.
If only they saw what was really going on around them, they would have realized how happy they should feel being able to earn money and feeling impatient to go back home.

After coming home, while I was in the shower, I thought of how ungrateful people can be, including me. We are too ignorant to see what real suffering is. Yes, what the conductor said was partially right. People like her and the girl in the bus are people who ACTUALLY need sympathizing and pitying.

I love this quote said by Dumbledore, in Harry Potter, that goes like "Do not pity the dead. Pity the living. And above all, pity those who live without love."

I pity those who live without love because they are ignorant.
I pity those who live without love because they are selfish.
I pity those who live without love because they are ungrateful.
I pity those who live without love because they are unable to love others before themselves.
That these people don't know where real joy comes from.

I pity these people because they never got to know how blessed they are compared to the old lady.

The old lady had nothing, that's how she can appreciate the littlest things that she can get from strangers. People pass by her every day, and can’t even see that she is struggling more than the rest of us to survive.

Today, before I sat down with the old lady, I asked her if she needed food. She told me that my company is more than enough. If she knows true gratitude and appreciation, then what more people like us?