#100sareepact 80/100

This is one of my favourite chiffons , light and simple its bright green floral print relieving the quiet of the black and white stripes . Does not crush at all and lasts all of a long working day . I wear it with green or black or at times with this contrasting shade of peach . It is a you can wear it to anywhere kind of saree .
As I stepped out today there was an old and dear friend waiting to greet me . A happy surprise visitor . Dilip Lokhande and I go back a long way together . He had walked into the office about 14 years ago with his file from Tata Hospital . A new patient to be enrolled into the programme . As I was filling his form he suddenly asked me Madam aap Thane ke hain na? Yes I said looking up at him and he was smiling in a hesitant manner . You have not recognised me he said . I thought he looked familiar now but nothing clicked . Not until he said I am the Koknipada ST bus conductor . I put my pen down and then it hit me . Of course it was he. My 9:30 bus home from Thane Station . The guy who said good night to me as I got off at the last stop. Every night . I could only say , I suppose it’s because you are not in your uniform ?
His nervousness left him and he shared his concern at his diagnosis and how his two children were so young and his wife all alone . We spoke for a while . He was worried about being able to continue the exacting and arduous job of his . If you have ever traveled in one of the State Transport buses from the station you would know it’s as bad for the conductor as it is for the commuter . I consoled him as best as I could and ensured he left knowing he would be receiving his medication and all support required to help him cope .
Over the years I would meet him off and on ; whenever he would come for his follow up and learnt his absence from the bus route only meant he had been transferred to a desk job keeping his illness in mind .
So now after all these years neither does he cover the route nor do I take the bus but as Controller of the bus routes of my neighbourhood he drops in whenever his work brings him to the bus stop near our apartment . And brings me news of his children all grown up and one of them all set to complete an Interior Designer course while the younger one is in high school .
We walk towards the depot so I can see him at work and meet the driver and conductor of the bus whose roster he needs to check .
And we sit and chat a while with Kaka , our resident cobbler whose little shop has been at the side of the bus stop for as far as I can remember .
My day is complete as soon as it even has just begun .
Azim has captured the wonderful morning so beautifully . He says he is happy to meet the person who looked after me in the bus those days .