Kindness One: In India, an experience that surpasses the Taj Mahal

My travels across the globe relying on the kindness of strangers with my trusted motorcycle, Kindness One, continue to amaze me. I traveled from Delhi to Agra in India and visited the Taj Mahal. This was a highlight of the trip, to be sure, but to my amazement, better things were just around the corner.

The city of Lucknow, which has about 3 million people, is a few hours’ ride from the Taj Mahal. In Lucknow, I bumped into a man on his way to a village. I didn’t have anywhere to stay and he offered me free gas when I got to his village 45 minutes away.

When you are relying on the kindness of strangers for gasoline, food and shelter, this comes in handy.

I didn’t know it, but he had called his family. When we arrived in my motorcycle, the whole village came out to celebrate. Hundreds of people were singing and dancing as I drove up through the dirt tracks. I was overwhelmed.

Some of these people had never seen a foreigner before and I am pretty certain they had never seen a yellow bike with a side car.

As the dancing and singing died down, I was taken on a tour of the village; hundreds of people followed my every move. I met the cows, the holy men and the farmers. The experience at the village was moving, fueled by kindness borne of love from those villagers.

I ended up staying the night in the elder’s house and in the morning my new friend was true to his word and filled up Kindness One. And I was off on another adventure.