Do you believe in reverse service?

I believe in return gifts and reverse service. Do you?

So I was in this Vistara flight to Hyderabad last Wednesday for a client engagement when one of the stewardess bent down near me and asked me if I had a meeting in Hyderabad? I guess she assumed that based on my formal dress.

Let’s just call her A, based on one of the alphabets in her name.

I said yes and she wished me good luck while she served me my breakfast.

As she came by to clear the table, I had my mask down as I was sipping coffee.

As I smiled in acknowledgement and thanks for her service, she remarked that I had a nice smile.

I don’t know what made her say that but it certainly did broaden my smile and I sensed an expansion in my heart.

And then as she came to clear the trash, I motioned to her and asked if she believed in return gifts?

Taken aback a little, she said yes.

I told her to come back once her job was done.

As she came back a few minutes later, I showed her the stuffed hearts that you see and asked her to pick one as a return gift for enquiring about my day and making me smile.

She picked one that looks like the one with pink stripes on it and with a broad smile said that I made her day.

I just said: what goes around comes around.

I had managed to complete my P.A.G.A.L.-panti act for the day though it wasn’t the last opportunity that day. Later that evening I offered a hug to a person from Ghana who had led all the participants at my client site and me through a great drum circle.

Thanks a lot for these stuffed hearts, my dear friends Rahul Hasija​​, Kamalbir Kaur​​ and Meghna Banker. They travel with me everywhere as I don’t know when and who might deserve that gift.

We all have the opportunity to be heartists.

So what are we gifting a stranger and a known person today?

As I truly believe in the African proverb Ubuntu: “I am, because we are.”

😌🙏🏽🙏🏽