26th July is the day, which taught me what humanity is… What is selfless service and why we should value people and things while we have them. Few years ago, on this day, I was at work… Oblivious to the havoc that rain was creating outside… Somewhere in the evening water started accumulating in our office. All CPUs were instantly kept on the table. The lights went off…. That’s when we all went out to see what’s happening and what we saw scared us to death. Adjoining compound wall had fallen off and water was gushing in our office compound and entering our office. There was knee high water in the compound and waist high water on the road rushing down the lane. My contract bus timings was 6:30pm and it was time to step out to go the bus stop… But water force was so much that it was impossible to get out of the office alone. So 3 other colleagues joined me and we stepped out hand in hand to get on the main road. It was crazy outside. Water, water everywhere… I somehow managed to get to the bus stop but there was no sign of my contrat bus. I could see only 2-3 familiar fellow travelers but they too went back to their office. Now it was only me at the stop. It was getting dark. Lightning was scary… Intensity of rain was increasing with every passing minute and to top it all no mobile network. It was almost 7pm and there was no way I could have gone back to the office… Water levels were increasing… I was wondering, did made a mistake by stepping out of the office?? but the time to think was gone. I was in a do or die situation. I kept waiting at the stop wondering what to do… could see 2-3 unknown people waiting at the stop. Now it was dark, no street lights, thunder lightning and I could hear only raindrops, loud, very loud… I remembered all possible Gods, I promised to be a good girl (not that I was a bad one) if any of the Gods help me get me out of the scary situation I was in. I thought of various options, mom’s home, office, Friend’s place but nothing was gonna work out. Suddenly, I saw this frail, tall boy asking people if they travel by a particular contract bus and suddenly I realized, he was my contract bus cleaner… I was overjoyed… He told me that since there was water logging they had parked the bus at SEEPZ 2nd Gate which was not so close from where I was waiting. Other 2-3 people who were at the bus stop decided to travel by my contract bus. We started walking towards contract bus in the dark. Bus cleaner said “paani ka bahav bahot hai madam, hamara haath pakad lo”. He was right water levels were increasing as we kept walking… Now water was at my chest level, cold with chilly winds. 5 people who were strangers just before my bus cleaner appeared, were now co-travellers… First time in my life, I must have held a hand of a total stranger, but I had no choice. I was shy and there was awkwardness but the man said “its ok, don’t hesitate, we all need to hold on stronger to face this water current.” He was no more a stranger… It appeared as if we were playing our childhood game of ‘Saakhli’. It took us more than 45 minutes to walk the distance which would have been a 15mins walk under normal conditions. Finally, after braving heavy water current, rains and thunderstorm, we all reached the bus. The feeling was equal to conquering Mount Everest. After few minutes, bus started and I suddenly felt lucky, seeing other people still stranded, walking on highways to get home. It made me think, of all these people, why me?? Why that frail bus cleaner walked all the way, braving sea of water to fetch us. He was a new cleaner and didn’t even know us… He could have simply gone home without thinking about us. There were so many questions on my mind but I didn’t find any convincing answer. It was definitely a divine intervention. I was truly very lucky, coz my other colleagues who were not so lucky, spent that whole night and next 1-2 days in the office, with no power, no water to drink, no food, 6 inches water in the office…. And there I was, sleeping at home like a baby… I must have probably done something right in the past, helped the needy, been kind to strays…. Reasons could be numerous… but I learnt an important lesson… one act of kindness can brighten several lives… It was truly heroic act of kindness done by 2 people for total strangers. I gave them Dairy Milk and said “Thank You” when I travelled next on the bus. Both of them just smiled… Needless to say, my faith in humanity had grown stronger and my determination to make a difference to the society, mightier…
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 13:58:54 +0000
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