Of awards and hearts!

“Woman sitting near bike photo”, by Nam Hoang, @puonqnam217

It was one of those lovely Gangtok mornings with that slight chill in the air and a promise of an adventure. She and I had taken our rented bikes and we headed out to explore the lovely by lanes of the town.

After about an hour of cycling uphill and downhill, the rolling roads got us tired and we looked around for a refreshing beverage and noticed a juice seller. We parked our bikes and took a breather when we noticed this beautiful old lady selling colourful handheld fans. The vibrant colours of the fans seemed like a rainbow on the monochrome background of the footpath.

As we leisurely sipped our juice, we realized that the old lady was earnestly looking at us as if she wanted us to approach her and talk to her. We realized her hesitation to directly call us but her slight hint of a smile broke the ice. We gave in and moved closer to her. She hurriedly removed a piece of paper from her bag and muttered in broken Hindi. She mentioned that a foreigner lady gave her the note and some significant amount of money. Her expressions were very confused at that moment. She wanted us to read the note and translate.

Thank you! On my last visit here, I had taken your picture and submitted it to a magazine and that had won me an award. This is a small token of my appreciation.
Keep smiling,
Love, Agnes

We returned the note and she held that in her hand and actually gave us that smile. One of the most beautiful, content smiles.

Helping to win awards and win hearts.

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This story was written in a storytelling workshop where we were shown these images and given 10 odd minutes to write the story.