Learning From Houston!

Life takes a completely new route once you leave India and come to Houston. Same old lines and same clichés to begin with! So what do I begin with? Well, I will begin with two things about Houston that fascinated me the most.

Like every student living off campus I too take the Metro everyday to reach college. In my initial days here I was shocked one day to see a female bus driver! Yes, the Indian in me is not used to such sights!  And I was filled with fascination at first and later on with admiration. We proclaim girls are catching up in every field but what is the reality? How many of us have seen female traffic inspectors or bus drivers or for that matter female police inspectors in India?  Very few may be. Frankly, I had not seen any. Agreed that these numbers are increasing in India too but it’s a long journey as of now. So for the beginning, I raise a salute to all the minority of women in India who are coming forward to take the less travelled routes! You go girls!

Another heart warming incident that shook the Indian in me happened yesterday. At one stop in the journey to college in the bus, the driver stopped the bus at a stop. All of a sudden, he got up from his seat, lowered the floor of the bus and helped a person with disability to embark on the bus. He fastened a belt with the man’s wheel chair and asked him if he was comfortable. After making sure that he had done his job satisfactorily he started driving again. Well, sensitivity towards people with disabilities is one area that our country needs a lot to do about. Here, we find separate reserved parking spaces, special accommodations in even the washroom made for people with special needs. That gesture speaks volumes about the sensitivity level of the community. This is one change for which I would like to work once I go back to our country. Even if on a small level we can show that persons different from us are also part of us, that would truly be a service to the great nation we come from. 

Signing off till the next time I write!

Cheers

Divya