A journey in awareness.

Awareness is just a state of mind but it can change the world around you or at least it can change the way you look at the world. For some, awareness is simply living in present moment and some think its consciously trying to focus on things.
Today when i got into a rick for my office, i thought of listening to some music but I resisted the idea. When you listen to music, no matter what kind of music, you alienate yourself from rest of the world. I had heard about being in present moment but I wanted to consciously experience it today. I was looking outside at things that were happening around. Within a few minutes, I found all though i went through that road almost every day, there was something new in it. I was just looking around trying not to lose myself in the world of imagination.
I started observing things that were always there, but i never noticed them. My auto stopped at a signal and I was waiting for green signal but it seemed extra slow today. My attention went to a man, sitting on road side with a small bag full of coals beside him and a knife in his hand. He had a stone were he would keep one piece of coal on the stone and cut it into small pieces. While doing so, he kept looking around. He would look to his left and right (as if he is doing something wrong which he don’t want others to see) and then again started cutting coals. I found that weird but kept looking at what he did. Now i was interested in knowing, what was he doing? Suddenly signal went green and we moved on. He was a strange but somewhere down i knew i had got a very unique character which could be used someday in my book. There was an urge in me to write him down, so that i don't forget him but then again a strange thing happened (everything seemed strange) or I should say, a strange thought. If i would write about him now, i would never come to know the right time and the right place to use him. A fear of wasting such a precious character started haunting in my mind. (A roadside man suddenly became a precious character) I decide to leave it. I knew i would forget this character soon but was also confident that my mind would remind me of him at the right time.
I was about to reach office, thinking about everything that happened throughout the journey. When i finally reached, I got down and saw that the meter read 2.10. I asked the auto driver to check what the fair was for 2.10. He looked at me and said rs. 25. While paying i realized once i had paid rs. 25 when the meter read 2.00. So it should definitely be more than that. I asked him to check again to which he showed me the fare card, which confirmed he was right. I cursed other autowalas for charging me more than normal. I gave him the fair and started walking towards my office. While walking I started summarizing everything again, If i would have not decided to stay away from music for in this journey, i would have got irritated the moment auto stopped at signal; The man cutting coal on roadside (a precious character) would have gone unnoticed. A sense of honesty, when i wanted to pay the autowala more (at least i thought what he was asking for was less) and I would be careful next time when ever meter read 2.00.
Wait wait!!!!!
Last but not the least, i would have never written this piece you are reading.