Sights

Color bind

November 16, 2017

Many years ago, I was attending the ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) conference in San Francisco. As a part of the conference events, ASTD had organized sight-seeing trips around San Francisco for the international delegates. I had signed up to visit Sausalito, a small fishing village.

Several buses were lined up outside Moscone Center, the conference venue. Following clear directions, I joined the queue of delegates boarding a bus headed to Sausalito. At the head of the queue, a uniformed driver was checking the tickets and directing people to board the bus. When my turn came, he looked at me, took my ticket and instead of directing me to the bus, asked me to step aside. I stood aside, not quite understanding the reason. The bus was full by now and had moved forward. The next one came in its place. I had asked him twice if I could board the bus. He didn’t respond. He was still holding my ticket.

It was an awkward situation. Several questions were cropping up in my mind. By this time, I noticed several people from the first bus (which was parked a little ahead) looking in my direction. I could sense that several people behind me had grown restive – they had been watching me wait on the side for quite some time now. Somewhere from behind, I saw an old lady in a red coat with a matching bag, walk purposefully towards me. She looked at me, turned to face the driver and demanded loudly, “I see this gentleman waiting for quite some time now. What is the issue?”. The driver did not respond. Instead, he casually pulled out my ticket from his pocket, handed it over to me and directed me to board the bus.

The lady looked at me, smiled and said, “My dear, we still have brutes in our country. I am sorry. Hope you have a great trip.” I thanked her and boarded the bus. As I entered the bus, I was greeted with smiles. Some passengers offered me their seat. I could manage only a nervous smile. I settled down in a comfortable seat with a sense of relief.
I had a great time at Sausalito.

That day I got a taste of how people who are judged by their skin color feel.

In our world too, we crack jokes about a particular community, make insensitive comments about people belonging to another part of our own country. For people belonging to the larger community, it could be a source of amusement but one needs to step into the other person’s shoes to know how it feels.

As a people, we are not a bunch of roses of the same color. We are all different flowers in one bouquet. We bring our unique colors, characteristics and fragrances to make this world so special.

Let us enjoy this diversity.

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