Looking for Main Street²⁶

I continued walking. I came back and crossed Main Street. Then I saw an elderly gentleman, tall and thin and a little bit weak, coming towards me. He said to me, "Sir, please tell me if I am heading towards Main Street."

Main Street was only forty metres away. I said to him, "Yes, yes, you are quite close." And I showed him the way.

He was so happy. When I can give people correct information, I am in the seventh heaven of delight. When I cannot tell them, I feel miserable. I told him this and then I felt that he wanted to speak with me. So I was describing how twenty years ago I had the same problem. I was fifty metres from Union Turnpike early in the morning and I had to ask an elderly woman where Union Turnpike was. She just pointed straight ahead and said, "You are so near. You are facing it."

So this elderly gentleman and I were in the same boat. Then he told me that he was about to turn back because he was arguing with himself whether he was going the right way. He did not know he was so close. So it went on. Two old men had a very nice conversation. He gave me a broad smile and I gave him a broad smile.