I have earlier read in his testimonials that he is an epitome of patience. This was the time I could actually see what patience in him is. At the midnight of a long drive form LA to Sanjose, I am suddenly woken up by somebody who was fetching a spanner to replace a flat tyre. I stepped down the car or rather jumped from the seat half asleep. I see him in front of me and I am all of a sudden hugged by him saying that the car tyre was flat. There is an old telugu movie joke, he said "ippudu nuvvu emannav ..... naanna chitti", and hugged again. I am surprised this time.
Surprised because, earlier in the beach there was a car lock out. The first thing I heard from him was "These things happen, nothing to worry". The next thing he did was to tell everyone to rush to the beach. Most of them were enquiring, if not most, alteast I wanted to, what happened to the keys, how it got locked out, where the keys were right now etc. Its not that this was the first ocassion to see something in him, there was a NY trip earlier as well, but for some reason this trip was more exhausting to mention. And its not that this is the only quality in him to mention considering the blog would become too big to read :)
Once the trip was over, after pondering for a while, I confirmed I am not over reacting, because everyone else was impatient to some extent with some thing or the other, be it the directions to the motel where we were supposed to stay in LA or for that matter anything else. Its a different matter that our group enjoys whatever comes in the way. Be it enjoying the time in rest area during the flat tyre or anything else. We enjoy whatever happens, but I really felt the need to thank him for hosting by keeping his head cool.
What we see is sometimes the world to us. These incidents seem normal to some and great to some. Added to that, if you are caught between the thoughts 1. if people would genuinely accept your appreciation, or 2. if people think you are trying to impress them with fake appreciation 3. if people accept you as you are or prefer what they want you to be by being nice and showing fake hospitality, its difficult to appreciate small things when the recipient does not like it. But to look at it as something what I "feel" am incapable of, I would definitely raise a toast to the patient hosting.
