Sitting next to a stranger

This is the story of a girl who was just sitting next to me in my office. Her name was Meena. She was very bubbly by nature and full of life. I did not know much about her, but my senior instructed me to teach her all the office tasks. She was a newcomer to our office. My whole day was with her. She asked me many questions related to work. Sometimes, I felt annoyed when she inquired about me a lot, but she was curious and seemed interested. Going through everything, I had the chance to let her know a little that she is a quick learner. In the beginning, she asked me a lot about our office tasks, and I also referred to some of our sites from where they could gather more information.

Gradually, beyond work, we started talking with each other. One morning, as I reached the office, as usual, I was waiting for my coffee. During that time, one of my colleagues was busy at work, so I could not find time to talk with her that morning. So, this way, I got to sit with Meena for some moments. This started with my friendly conservation with her, and slowly she became so comfortable talking about any topic with me. I must say that she was the girl of words; as she opened up before me, she could not stop herself. I did not even ask anything personal of hers, but all of a sudden, she started telling me her own story about how she had gone through a tough life and how she was struggling with it. This was a family issue and was about their parents, and between all this, she was suffering a lot. She also told me that she has gone through mental issues and depression in the past few years. Overcoming all those setbacks, she came to join this office.

She was full of emotions, and I was the one she found pouring on me. She shared all the struggles and turmoil that she went through. As she was talking about all this, tears fell from her eyes. She was holding them back, and as I saw, she turned her face. I ignored her as though I hadn’t seen her crying. Somehow, I managed the situation and stopped her from saying more about it so that she could stop being emotional at her workplace. After some time, the scene was different there. She was in the role of a colleague of mine.

No one can say that she was a warrior unless anyone talks to her this way.

Through this, I learned that everyone has gone through tough times, but people do not find anyone listening to them. Maybe my words would not help them, but my presence might have brought some relief to her pain.

We don't know anyone’s story unless we sit with them and let them tell their own story.