The state of dismal affairs of our public life sometimes exasperates me and i think, if i were to escape India now and return in three years time, would it be any different , would my city's roads be cleaner, will the traffic have eased up ,may be just a bit , will the air i breathe be a tad cleaner. And then an overriding sense of guilt overtakes me but haven't most of us become this way? How many times have we contemplated doing something for our cities whose roads we traverse everyday? OK, forget the city, how many times have we helped a hapless passerby ? Just when stories of our citizen's everyday insensitivity besiege me, i am reminded of an incident that changed these beliefs and restored my faith in basic human goodness.
I was a b-school student on my way to interior Andhra from Chennai for an uncle's wedding. I had just arrived at the Chennai airport clutching the lone ticket to Rajahmundry to which only one specific airline flew. The ticket was booked by my father and i was juvenile enough to be travelling cashless and cardless, so sure was i of the Indian Airline system, not anticipating flight cancellations.
Murphy's law prevailed and promptly i was brushed off by the very unassuming person at the counter that the flight had been cancelled . I looked around helplessly and called my father wailing my heart out. Busy with the wedding preps in the background , i was promptly instructed to take the bus back to bangalore. No way i decided , once i hung up was i getting back to the grind while the rest of the khandaan made merry at a destination wedding. But little did i know how i was going to reverse the situation. I hadn't realized what a perfect spectacle i had made of myself to the passersby until a perfect stranger, dressed from head to toe in white, walked up and said "Kya hua beti ? Anything i can do to help? ".
Unsure and untrusting, with all kinds of horror stories of rape and molestation rampant in my head, i hesitated briefly before the gentleman, bless his soul flashed his card at me for reference, which revealed he was an IAS officer, a director at one of the prominent SEZs in the south of the country. I told him my story even as he led me to the an alternate airline counter making enquiries on my behalf to a place closer to my destination and flashed a ticket for a flight leaving in the next half hour.Intensely uncomfortable with accepting undue favors from anybody, i was torn between my urge to travel and the desperate need for help but finally gave in , when something about him told me he was a sincere man genuinely willing to help. He seemed to sense my predicament when he asked me not to worry and that i could always call him to transfer the money to his bank account later on.I couldn't thank him enough while i made my way into the check in counter and made it just in time for the grand wedding.
It is another story that i had to track this man down over the next 6 months before he was able to share his bank account details with me.
Do you have a similar story of incredible goodwill and help?
