Perspective Series: Lost between Bath & Midsomer Norton

January 29, 2019, was a very cold winter day in the UK. I landed at Heathrow in the afternoon thinking that travelling first time to the British countryside on a gruelling winter day immediately after reaching London was a good idea. Up until I got the train ticket to Bath and actually reached there in the evening it was still ok. It became rather interesting when I realized that 5pm on a European winter evening for a first-time traveller to the region may not have been a very intelligent idea as it was already dark and more so because for some reason the internet wasn’t working on my phone.

The cold never bothers me and I love winters so thankfully I was fine with the weather but it had gotten really dark and the ticketing office at the bus station was closed. Hence, I was unable to actually check how I could reach Midsomer Norton, my eventual destination for the day. After being a little frantic for a few minutes, I calmed down thinking that mobile phones are relatively newer and people did use to get around without them so I should be able to do so without any drama. With strong resolve, I checked all the live ‘bus boards’ and figured out broadly which bus I have to take and from which gate. Now the real trouble started as I didn’t have access to maps; online because of no internet and offline because I had not bothered to download it earlier. And that’s why I had no idea where to get off, as in I did not know the name of my stop. I was pacing at the bus station thinking some way to figure out my bus stop’s name when suddenly I saw a very sweet old man (we will call him ‘Bob’ for this blog) trying to pick something from the floor. Out of habit, I bent and handed his paper to him and we casually started talking. He asked the most obvious question that where I am from, and that not because of my skin colour but because I was probably the only person there without an umbrella (before you judge me, it was in my hand-carry guys, I mean I just have two hands). After the usual chit chat, I told Bob the hotel’s name where I had to get to. And just like that, he took out his phone, opened up the map and started to explain to me where the hotel was exactly located and where I should get off. I even took a picture of the route from my phone. Just to add, by this time it was pitch dark. I kid you not, the gorgeous in light Brit countryside at this point seemed really deserted, more like the middle of nowhere. It is honestly times like this when every horror movie you have ever watched starts to mock you. Anyhow, now Bob had to get off two stops before me and that had me a tad bit worried thinking what if I miss the stop as I wasn’t able to see much outside the window. Halfway through the ride, Bob asked me to take the umbrella out and keep it handy as he thought it may rain (hmm, that was interesting because when I checked at Dubai just before boarding the flight to London, there was no rain). And now it was time for Bob to get off. To my utter surprise before getting off, Bob said to the bus driver, “Jerry, please make sure that the young lady (pointing at me) gets off safely at the Sun Agency stop”. I think for some reason I wasn’t ready for this kindness but I got it none the less probably because I welcomed it whole-heartedly.

When my stop came, Jerry also guided me as to how should I get to my hotel as it was a 5 to 10-minute walk, depending on the weather, from the stop. As my luck would have it, the minute I stepped out of the bus, it started literally pouring down. I started walking following the directions Bob and Jerry gave me. But because it was so dark and windy in addition to the really cold rain, I wasn’t able to see ahead clearly. What was really a 50 to 100-meter walk from the stop to the news agency seemed like an eternity. Honestly, when I reached it, there was no living being as far as I could see. Tentatively, I asked if someone was in the shop and to my relief a guy came out. Needless to say, he was really surprised to find a foreigner with her luggage out in the rain by herself. He was one of the many nice people I met during my brief journey from Bath to Midsomer Norton. He came out of his shop and showed me where I should go. I started dragging my suitcase again in the rain and after about 15 minutes or so I finally saw the entrance to the hotel. What a feeling it was!

When I think back, none of it was out of the ordinary for Somerset county or dramatic or anything but our nerves at times get the better of us. Also, reading on the plane about some sort of mugging attacks on brown people in the UK recently didn’t help. But what I learnt that day will stay with me forever. I learnt that the perspectives we have about people, places, for that matter anything, is what actually holds us back or weigh us down. Judging a situation simply by reading about it is not a good idea. People in my experience almost always end up surprising us. Only if we come off our high horses and ask for help nicely and be kind to people, it gets reciprocated. Bob, Jerry or that agency guy had no reason to help me that day other than them being nice, kind human beings. And in my (for lack of a better word) naivety, I had judged all of them even before knowing that they exist based on an article I had read in a newspaper. Travel, for me, is something that has helped me grow as a person because when you travel and meet people, you realize how limited your world view had been. I firmly believe that finding kindness is probably easier than finding food at times. You just have to be nice, honest and kind yourself and everything good finds its way to you itself.

Until the next instalment of “Perspective Series”, cheers!

Tooba Tanveer