"...no, thank you. I am fit and in no rush, so I will stand in this queue,"

"...no, thank you. I am fit and in no rush, so I will stand in this queue," said the uncle, sporting a hat and a beard like Gandalf the White.

Last Monday, Mumbai went to the polls. I dreaded standing in an hour-long queue in the summer heat as I drove to the polling center. I collected the slip and entered the building to locate the polling room. There were about 15 people in the queue ahead of me.

A couple of minutes later, a gentleman joined the same queue. "Sir, you can come this side and stand in this queue. This one is for senior citizens," said the police officer stationed at the entrance. He was dripping in sweat in his khaki uniform and cap. That is when the uncle said what I quoted earlier. A few of us turned to look at the source of the voice. The uncle smiled, noticing the attention, and added, "I cycle across the country, and last year I cycled from Kanyakumari to Kashmir. I have relocated to Jharkhand but cycled down a couple of weeks ago to cast my vote since my name is registered here."

The guy standing next to him immediately asked how old he was. The uncle answered, "I am 70, but I still feel like 50. The day I feel like 60 is the day I will start standing in senior citizen queues. Besides, I have no urgency and nowhere to go, so I don't mind waiting in this queue." He then went on to narrate his cycling adventures. While talking about them, he said, "Paisa aur log aate jaate rehte hain. Accha khao, durust raho, khush raho, aaram se raho" [Money and people will keep coming and going. Eat well, stay fit, stay happy, stay calm].

The senior citizen queue only had four people, yet he waited in the general queue until his turn came. Interestingly, just a couple of days before, I had overheard someone in the office cafeteria say, "The VIP darshan queue moves quickly. It only costs a couple of hundred, but it saves so much time."

Here we had this gentleman who refused his right to a priority queue as a senior citizen, labeling it as a privilege. On the other hand, we often exercise our privileges without even realizing they are privileges, treating them as if they are our rights!