Garbage truck moral

Aravinda felt almost spent. So he decided to ring Tharanga, the cab driver who was always at his beck and call.

Tharanga was quite disciplined and decent at the wheel. He never strayed off the track, unless he wanted to overtake. He would always give way to other vehicles. Even at night-time he never turned on the radio. There were times, though, Aravinda would get late because of Tharanga’s discipline.

It was a Friday, and Aravinda wanted to do some urgent shopping. It meant a one-hour journey for both Aravinda and Tharanga.

Tharanga was gathering speed, when something quite unexpected came his way. A huge truck suddenly popped out of a subway. The cab almost touched the truck. Aravinda half expected a collision. If Tharanga did not apply the brakes, the consequences would not be little.

It was the truck driver’s fault.

He should have taken a little more care before steering the truck into the main road. But he seemed to be concerned about everything else. The truck driver was throwing his hands in Tharanga’s direction and shouting:

“Who the hell are you?”

And the rest that followed was verbal filth. All the same Tharanga stayed on quiet. His face was calm, Aravinda could observe. Still his gaze fixed on Tharanga, the truck driver shifted the gear to move the vehicle. Tharanga, in that instant, smiled and waved at him.

The expression of the driver’s face changed. But he did not stop the vehicle. Aravinda was fuming within, but perplexed at the same time because of Tharanga’s behaviour. Until a few seconds elapsed, Aravinda could not get himself to speak out. But there was one question throbbing in his head.

“That was his fault, right?”
“Absolutely, yes.”
“Then...” Tharanga chipped in, right at that moment.
“You are going to ask why I behaved that odd with that fellow, aren’t you?”
“You got it, Tharanga.”
“It needs explanation, sir.”

“We have still more to go. So don’t worry, we got time.”
Tharanga smiled.

“I know we have enough time. But are you patient enough to give me a hearing?”
“Of course yes, Tharanga. Carry on.”

“You know sir, that was a garbage truck.”

Only then did Aravinda remember it was a garbage truck. The smell was unbearable, but the irritation was overpowering.

“What garbage does is spreading filth. Bad smell. Most of us are also like that. We fill our hearts with garbage. We collect garbage in many places. It can be office. It can be home and so on. We collect them, and pile them up when the best is to get rid of them. Got my point?”

Aravinda nodded.

“So what happens is when we collect and pile garbage, we give out an unbearable smell to those around us.”

“I see,” Aravinda said, involuntarily, thrilled by what he has just heard.

“We have to put up with such people. We should be the happy people among the distressed. We should be the peaceful among the violent.” So the best way to over-power the garbage smell is to spread scent ourselves.”

‘That’s what you did, Tharanga.”
Tharanga laughed, this time.
“Exactly sir. I made his facial expression change. I made him surprised.”
“What would he have thought?”
“He would have thought I’m a dumb idiot, perhaps.”
“But you are not.”
“They will realize that only over time.”

Tharanga drove the rest of the journey, silently. Aravinda did not want to disturb the silent world of thoughts.

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