I and my friends had gone to Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh for some bank audits, way back in 1986. We had several branches to be audited in that area. At that time there were no convenient
hotels in most of the places and we had to stay either at branch premises or stay in nearby towns and commute daily to branch locations.
At that time, we were staying in Mainpuri and used to take one private bus which was plying in ‘Bewar Mathura route’, on a daily basis to visit these branch locations and return to Mainpuri late evening.
The bus driver was a middle aged gentle man who had the required skill and patience to drive on pot hole filled UP roads at that time. This gentle man will never allow any other person to drive this bus. He
was not the owner of this bus. Though we did not notice initially, we realized as the days went by, that there was some calmness in the bus which made everybody very comfortable. There were no fights or loud arguments with the conductor for returning of change
etc. In spite of very bad UP roads the journey was noticeable by its absence of jerks and annoying jolts and jumps. The passengers were dozing off to blissful sleep immediately after taking their tickets. There was no anxiety amongst passengers, whether the
conductor will return the change etc. We also felt very comfortable and we could always get the connecting Tonga (horse driven cart) to Madanpur where we had to go for audit. One of the things that we noticed was, we could always see Saras cranes dancing
on the fields completely oblivious of the movement ofthe bus, each and every day when the bus was driven by this middle aged gentleman. I still remember clearly their movements and the background of lush fields passing by even now.
One day the middle aged driver was off duty and the owner of the bus was driving. Immediately we could sense the change of atmosphere in the bus. The conductor was rude and impatient and there were fights
for seats and return of balance change. On that day the journey was very uncomfortable in the pot hole filled UP roads. We also missed our connecting Tonga and had to walk the entire six kms to Madanpur and the ordeal was repeated in the evening also. Most
beautiful experience of spotting Saras cranes in the fields was completely absent on that day.
I somehow kept remembering these observations without having a clue as to how to comprehend them. I just left it at that time as one of many such instances which can be simply explained as subjective as no
other external measurements were possible.
However about six to seven years back, some thought came to me about the flow of Mother Nature. I could sense and perceive Nature’s seamless flow in the whole episode. Suddenly I could understand the middle
aged gentleman had an inward sense of peace that exuded to the surrounding and pervaded the space around him and he could be in sync with the flow of Mother Nature at that time. This sense of peace also pervaded in his style of driving which made the Saras
cranes totally comfortable and was not disturbed at all as they must have felt secure, when this bus was passing by. Likewise the fellow passengers and the conductor also felt secure without realizing the reasons for the same. Thus an inward sense of peace
of the bus driver permeated not only in the bus, but also to the surroundings where the bus moved. This was certainly a great lesson learnt from the nameless bus driver from a town in UP.