Silent Service

I have to travel often for work. Sometimes I spend weeks at one hotel, and sometimes I am forced to change hotels three times within a week. By now, I have started to look at it as a play or a challenge, rather than complain about the uncertainty of my location and schedules.In the cities that I frequent, I now have preferred places of stay. And seeing me checking in and checking out regularly, most of the hotel staff have built a sense of familiarity. There are some ushers at the gate who know my schedule well and wait prepared with a smile. There are some waiters in the hotel restaurants who place a glass of hot water and my preferred tea or coffee like clockwork. I have seen these men and women put up with tantrums from other guests, but never lose their smile. It's a professional hazard I suppose. In one such hotel, the sous chef came up to me at breakfast one day and asked if I could leave them a review online. Of course, I said, and obliged the request. I wrote about their warm service, individually calling out the housekeeping staff, the restaurant’s waiters and the team of chefs in my review. They deserved as much.A couple of months later, I visited the same hotel. Again, the bevy of staff waited upon me with their eager smiles and warm greetings. All is well, I thought. But not really. On this particular trip, almost every single day, one or the other staff asked me to leave a review for them. Even when they could see me rushing through my meals and running out to the office, they would stop me to remind me of the reviews. I had to put my foot down one fine day and tell them that their service now seems fake, all in return for a review..In contrast, while I was reflecting upon this incident, I couldn't help but recount the many times unknown strangers, beloved friends, colleagues and my own family have served me in so many different ways without expecting anything in return. While I acknowledge that hotels are actually a business and any word helps them in the marketplace, it did highlight in sharp relief how many acts of love go unnoticed and unacknowledged in our daily lives.In the same work trip, while I was drowning under unending tasks, two different colleagues on two different occasions, ordered and served me food. I am sure I would have skipped my meals that day if they hadn’t been so considerate. The countless number of times my mother has prioritised the needs and wishes of my brothers and I over her own preferences and requirements was another thing I got to see in the past month. And in both the above examples, I couldn't even get past a thank you. Neither did they demand any form of recognition.In fact, what makes these acts of ‘silent service’ even more special is that I didn't have to even voice my needs. They were so clued in to what I was doing or feeling that they provided for me of their own accord. In His phenomenal book, ‘I Love You Letters’, Swami Chinmayananda mentions this as one of the fundamental skills in expressing love—to have deep concern for the beloved..If this insight of silent service is valid, the corollary is true as well. Whenever we are compelled to boast or publicise our acts of love, we must then question if it was love at all which motivated us to behave in that manner. It can range from social service to the simple act of gifting someone on their birthday. Nowadays none of these acts go without a self-congratulatory message on social media… almost a review for one's own service!I have taken it upon myself now to be more mindful and sensitive of these small acts of love and reciprocate in whatever ways possible. Silent service after all has become such a rarity in our increasingly individualised worlds.