It was a fine day, the music player of my phone was playing all my favorite songs, as the player played a hit after a hit it came to a song by the band metallica- wherever i may roam. It reminded me of a particular incidence in a place away from home. 1 year ago during my summer vacation I had being to a place about 500 or 600 km from home to a place where I had my internship. During that period I had a first hand experience with dealing with roommates. My first roommate was also a summer intern, but his stint ended a week earlier than mine. When my old roommate left, a new one came well he was not a summer intern, but it had come for a small course of 2 weeks here. This roommate was quite intriguing, he didn’t understand English he only spoke a language I was completely unfamiliar with, well he did understand English but only to a limited extent. The conversation we had were only in few broken English words and hand actions to tell necessary things. When you don’t understand the language the other person speaks, you become elusive and alert you try to judge that person and view him or her in a particular way. That’s what happened to me. When the time came for me to leave the place, it so happened that my roommate would also leave a day after I would leave. As it was my first ever stay away from home, my parents were coming to the place where I was, to pick me up and in that particular area there weren’t any good hotels to stay. I was trying tirelessly to make a place to stay for my parents in the same place where I was staying, as the room I which I was staying had 3 beds, and only 2 beds were occupied at that particular time.
This is one lesson I learned by my stay away from home!
One day when I was talking to my parents on my phone, and I was pretty disappointed that they had to stay someplace far away from my place, my roommate somehow got a hint of my conversation and concern of my parents on the phone. After my call ended in a bit of disappointment, he asked me what was the problem?, in my broken English and hand symbols I told him that my parent were coming and they had no place to stay. After seeing the empty bed lying in front of me and my empty and disappointed face, In the same manner of sign language and broken English, he told me that he would move to another room in the same place, so that my parents could stay in this same room. Hearing this, I told him that it was fine and that told him to not worry about it. I told him that doing this it would be inconvenient for him. But he insisted, he told me they are your parents and they needed a place to stay, they can stay here I will find another place to stay. Hearing this I felt a bit obliged and I told him not to do this. Somehow afterwards everything went well my parents got a place to stay the night, since the next morning we were leaving for home, my roommate stayed in the same room, I moved for the night to the place where my parents were staying. But this incidence taught me one thing, just because you don’t understand the language the other person is speaking in and even if you communicate in a somewhat weird manner we should not have a prejudice against that person. We have to understand that we are all humans and regardless of what the other person speaks in we all understand our human ways. Everybody knows that when we are with our parent all that we want is convenience for them. That room mate of mine was ready to move out of the room so that my parents could stay there, even if that meant bringing inconvenience to him despite the fact that I knew him for only one week. I feel bad that I judged him too early but it taught me and told me the meaning of the saying.
It is important to be a human, than to be just a human being. 🙂
a journey to the greyish soul 