Airport Angel…

 

Love at first sight. That’s all I can say.

(Read further if you really have patience and wanted to and I guarantee you would crave to look at her photo)

Just like most people, I hardly pay attention to the surroundings in any airport as I would normally be listening to good music. But today I realized miracles do happen only when we care to notice and appreciate them.

Am not a morning person; I never was; never aspired to be and am never going to be.

Though early morning flights have become frequent, I always whine and sometimes get triggered too quickly. I never expected to meet someone so special, so warm and beautiful at my regular fast food restaurant at the airport. Most of the times I just order something in half-sleep mechanically without even looking at the person at the counter or those who are working alongside.

But… Oh my God! She was gorgeous. She was stunning. She was fantabulous.

 

She looked respectable and graceful in her back dress. She must have been working here for long. But good Lord, how I failed miserably to notice her before? I was scolding myself with the worst swear words that we casually used to use during our college times long ago.

It doesn’t stop there. She was very courteous and well-mannered, which is rare for many (who think they are!) beautiful. It was wonderful to see her pleasing response when a customer spilt something on the floor that she must have cleaned minutes ago. She just swept it away without any cringing or whiling about the person.

Wow! Beauty and nice behavior? These two things seldom mix and it’s very difficult to see together in an individual.

While I was waiting for my order to be ready, I saw her approaching every table with a gorgeous smile like a 2 year old and asking to clear the plates and cutlery. Wow! Amazing to see such patience and courteousness. It ain’t struck me that my order was actually ready and the buzzer on my table was blinking and swirling emitting strange sounds.

Of course, thinking about her and few other women who I met in my life earlier, I had my food and there she came to my table and gave an enchanting smile filled with motherly love. I was in such an elated state that her smile was so instantaneously contagious like Ebola virus.

She greeted and wished me good day! Of course, why not if the day kicks off like this instead of our rear sides getting kicked? I sincerely wish to start every day like this one.

 

Then she cleared my plates and staked them with some other to be taken to the wash basin.

I gathered my senses and a bit of courage to ask her for a photo with me.

She was a bit shy for a brief moment but then agreed. So I took a photo with her and she gave yet another striking lightning smile that in fact made my iPhone camera flash dull.

It was nothing short of a great moment for me and she conveyed many beautiful things that I could not possibly get from anyone or from anywhere else.

Curious to see her? Wait!

First of all, she was not enthralling 18, she must be 81 or even older as her deep wrinkles reveal.

 

She works as a cleaner in an airport restaurant and at this age, she was swirling like a teen, bubbling with energy and pleasing like an angel.

I assume her cheeks must have got thousands of kisses from her beloved grand and great grand children and hence caved-in. Her sunken eyes reflect her maturity and having lived through a fulfilling life yet working even at this age with dignity and earning to stand on her own legs. For she is a women of such a great determination, she was telling me how to accept and age gracefully.

What beauty really is

Now, just pause here for a moment to think. It is easy for me to guess what must have been going through in your minds while reading my description above about the beauty and how you feel now. That’s one of my learnings of the day.

Challenge your assumptions, always, every day. It will open new perspectives in life.

 

Angels come in all ages, shapes, skin types, sizes, from anywhere and can be seen doing any dignified work including this cleaning women.

She told me beauty is really not how it is usually shown in TV ads. It is much more wholesome, complete, fulfilling and deeper than just fair skins. Beauty cannot be baked from bikini-clad zero-sized bodies or chubby artificially-blushing cheeks. Nor any Ivy League education, degrees earned, wealth accumulated or awards can make one beautiful. It cannot be artificially manufactured through using mascara, lipstick or wearing branded expensive clothes, phones or accessories, which are nothing but show-off by shallow minds and hollow hearts.

Beauty means dignity and character. She works as a cleaner yet seems more dignified beautiful to me than many else with professional degrees but show no respect for others, explode at trivial things, have no culture to accept others openly, and always remain self-centered to greater narcissistic heights.

What makes one beautiful?

It doesn’t come from getting crowned as Miss Universe, Miss Milky Way Galaxy or Miss Solar System. Beauty comes from the thoughts within. Am sure one cannot behave calmly at home and just be a completely different person at his/her workplace and vice versa. It’s the inner core that cannot be switched on and off as and when needed. It remains unaltered and shows up all the time. If someone is usually calm, he/she will remain so whenever he/she is come what may. And the opposite is the hard and most commonly observed truth. Hence the amazing radiance of her beauty was just enthralling. Add to this her other virtues like patience and courteous behavior.

The most lovable ones are the most beautiful

 

Am sure she must be a wonderful granny and blessed are her grand kids. When I saw her I really miss my granny, who was a women of virtues, extraordinary patience and overflowing love and kindness not just for her grandchildren but the whole street used to call my grandma their beloved.

So I couldn’t be more grateful and can’t ever forget this day, the last of day 2015, for having given me the opportunity met someone so special and learnt some very useful and relevant lessons to live a content, fulfilling life that I could otherwise not have learnt from any school, college or workplace.

Thank you so much and love you my new “Airport Angel” grand ma!!

 

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