TOUCHING: Senior Citizen Gave Up Seat To Poly Student in Train

I was taking the train back home. It was around 4pm. The train was not packed with commuters. I stood beside a female Polytechnic student who was carrying her laptop and about four stacks of notes. Right in front of us was an elderly man seated comfortably with a light blue sling bag around his right shoulder.

The Poly student looked debilitated, struggling to support the heavy stack of notes using only her left arm. She then placed her laptop on the floor. Then suddenly, one of the never-seen-before-but-very-moving things I ever witnessed happened. The old man stood up and offered his seat to the student! Although I do not understand what he was speaking to her, I knew from his hand gestures that he was giving up his seat to the student.

The student, of course, refused. He tried to persuade her but the student kept declining the generous offer. He then alighted from the train at the next station.

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Here comes the anti-climax. As soon as the old man stepped out of the train, another passenger, a medium-built businessman holding a briefcase and newspaper, quickly rushed to the vacated seat. He then began reading the newspaper and pretended to be oblivious to his surroundings.

I remembered coming across a saying that older people are more courteous that younger ones. I wrinkled my eyebrows whenever I heard it but after this incident, I told myself that it is so true.