“He leaned forward and opened his door, politely standing
aside to let me by before following me in. There are some advantages to dating
a guy from another era, I thought. Though I am a big believer in gender
equality, chivalry scores high in my book.”
I remember watching Meg Ryan-Hugh Jackman starrer Kate & Leopold, long time ago. That’s
when the whole idea of a ‘chivalrous gentleman’ caught my attention. Last week,
during one of those heavy showers of Mumbai monsoon, I encountered an incident
which, putting it in the most clichéd way possible, restored my faith in humanity and thought of sharing it.
My day began as usual—snoozing the alarm clock till a
point that guarantees me a pay cut, get ready and rush to work. In all this
drama, that day, I had forgotten about the last night’s heavy downpour and
conveniently left home without an umbrella. I reach my destination and it’s,
literally, pouring. Giving a damn, I marched out because the clock was ticking.
Huffing and puffing, I reached the station bridge and set out to get a taxi,
when a young guy was gracious enough to share with me his umbrella.
At first, I gave him such a suspicious stare because
let’s face it, over the last few months, we, women have considered men as our
biggest enemies; not without reason though. But here, there was this young chap
who willingly was helping a girl, without any sign of nasty business. Besides a
small talk, there was no way he tried to be unnecessary ‘familiar’. He dropped
me till where it was convenient for me and scooted. That Thursday morning was different.
P.S: Special mention of my friend, Shabdita, who,
upon my request, patiently waited for me for nearly 15-20 minutes and took me
under her umbrella. As I said earlier, the morning was different!
