Dubai: While passing by Satwa Bus Station, an act of kindness happening live literally stopped Gulf News reader Corazon Tarcena in her tracks.
A young Emirati man was secretly slipping money into a municipal cleaner’s pocket.
Tarcena, a Filipina, said: “It was a truly amazing moment. The cleaner’s uniform was soaked with perspiration, because it was during peak summer, in Ramadan. I couldn’t help myself, I went up to the young man and said ‘thank you’ even though it was a kindness done for someone else, not for me.”
She said the cleaner’s reaction was heartwarming to see.
“He was just so happy. He couldn’t say anything, he just checked his pocket to see what the man had put in there, and smiled gratefully. I found myself giving him my handkerchief too, to wipe the perspiration off his face. What a feeling! It was so wonderful to experience.”
Tarcena has been in the UAE for 10 years, and works as a secretary in Dubai. She said she has regularly seen small gestures of kindness. However, incidents such as this particular one, were rare, she said.
“The man was only around 18 years old… I found it really amazing. Usually, you expect to see elderly people doing such acts, while younger people are busy in their own world.”
She commended the generosity of the young stranger, and praised him for acknowledging someone who was less fortunate.
She said: “Municipal cleaners, gardeners, garbage disposal people… they are always around, performing their jobs quietly and efficiently. Many a times, we don’t even realise they are there.
“After this incident, I have started greeting them whenever I pass by. Now, many workers along my usual route recognise me and say ‘hello’ or ‘good morning’ even before I do! But sometimes, when I do this, the cleaner will turn around to see if I was saying hello to someone behind him. They don’t expect even such a small gesture of kindness.”
Apart from this incident, during Ramadan, Tarcena said people have often offered her iftar, even though she is not fasting.
“Once, a fasting person insisted on sharing his meal with me, which he received from a mosque. I felt bad refusing, so I took a date from his plate and ate it in front of him, and thanked him for the gesture.
“I have noticed that people who have very little to share, are often the first to offer what they have to others. It is really a lesson for all of us.”
