Respect got a new meaning

It was about 14 years ago when I was visiting Vietnam for a Youth exchange program from India. The city was Hanoi. We were a group of teenagers, most of us visiting a foreign country for the first time. It was during the day and we had some free time to roam the city. So we were taking a stroll near the hostel where we were put up. 

It was one of the strangest but most beautiful things I ever saw. The city had many people riding motor bikes and they did follow traffic lights very religiously. There were no dividers on this road and two bikes that were coming from opposite direction had a head-on collision. Both the riders fell off their bikes. We froze on the footpath. We thought they'd be injured. Thankfully neither of them was. The next thing we thought would be a scuffle or a verbal fight. To our surprise, both the men got up, picked up their bikes, bowed their heads and smiled at each other. Then, they sat on their bikes and set off in their respective directions.

This was a show of mutual respect in a situation that usually elicits negative responses such as anger, fights - verbal or physical, calling the traffic police etc. That was the day respect got a new meaning for me. It meant that if we respect and show love to our fellow humans, we can solve tricky situations with a lot of grace.