It was a pleasant Saturday evening of 17th September...I was really excited as I was going home for the weekend. I left from office at 5.30 pm to catch a train scheduled after an hour. I happily trotted towards the station, and bought a pack of chips and cookies each for the three and half hours journey. Oh!! I was starving as I had to skip my lunch in order to compensate for the time as I had to leave early from office.
I was worried if I would get a seat, since I didn't have reservation as it was a last minute plan. Its really troublesome and tiring to stand throughout journey, and I kept my fingers crossed. So at 6.30 pm I boarded the train.
This world is full of weird kind of people. There were a couple of ladies who had two reservations and yet occupied three seats. There were many people like them. So many people were standing. They requested them repeatedly to shift a bit and let one person sit...but no..they were so adamant.
But as I said, there exists an equally kind and empathetic variety of people. They showed us where the empty seats were in another bogie. And yippie!!! I got one and it saved all the trouble that would have been caused to me standing all the way amidst the maddening crowd and their chatter.
After 45 minutes at next station there was a rush again. And that station too is so much crowded. Local trains come, people rush in and out of it. They push each other like animals...its like a mad bull fight.
While all this was happening out there, I was sitting comfortably on my window seat and munching on cookies and reading Mumbai Mirror. A lady dressed in a simple yet beautiful satin red and white salwaar-kameez came in and occupied the seat right opposite to that of mine.
She looked a bit upset. As if she was going to burst into tears. And she did. She called up someone, may be her family back home. She spoke in Sindhi, very softly. I could hear just a few words. She was talking about some kind of wound, fracture, something something...pain, fall..something something.
I then gave it a thought for a second and looked down at her. Her dress near the knee was soiled and it had stains of blood too. It was simple to guess that she was injured. When she hung up, I asked her what was wrong and why was she sobbing. She told me that she fell down on the platform when she was dashed by the crowd when the local train arrived. She showed me her left foot. OMG! It was swollen. It reminded me of my Mom who too slipped while walking and got such swollen foot. It was a fracture! It was 20 months back.
This lady was in great pain. Many passengers noticed her agony. Fortunately there was a doctor on the adjacent berth. She came in to relieve her a bit. She requested people to give some hard and flat object like cardboard. She applied an ointment on the foot and tied it with a scarf to a piece of cardboard that a passenger had offered. And the other two passengers vacated the entire berth so that she could keep her leg straight. The doc gave her a pain-killer. Another lady offered her a cup of coffee. She now looked relieved. She dozed off for next two and half hours, till we reached Nasik. The doc helped her to alight. Her husband had come to receive her. She thanked the doc and all the passengers for being so kind to her.
Its good to see good people in our otherwise selfish world.
This incident assures me that humanity still exists on this planet. Otherwise, who would have helped that injured lady?
And how would I've got a seat?
Its 'Humanity' that binds us all.... atleast in bad times....
I was worried if I would get a seat, since I didn't have reservation as it was a last minute plan. Its really troublesome and tiring to stand throughout journey, and I kept my fingers crossed. So at 6.30 pm I boarded the train.
This world is full of weird kind of people. There were a couple of ladies who had two reservations and yet occupied three seats. There were many people like them. So many people were standing. They requested them repeatedly to shift a bit and let one person sit...but no..they were so adamant.
But as I said, there exists an equally kind and empathetic variety of people. They showed us where the empty seats were in another bogie. And yippie!!! I got one and it saved all the trouble that would have been caused to me standing all the way amidst the maddening crowd and their chatter.
After 45 minutes at next station there was a rush again. And that station too is so much crowded. Local trains come, people rush in and out of it. They push each other like animals...its like a mad bull fight.
While all this was happening out there, I was sitting comfortably on my window seat and munching on cookies and reading Mumbai Mirror. A lady dressed in a simple yet beautiful satin red and white salwaar-kameez came in and occupied the seat right opposite to that of mine.
She looked a bit upset. As if she was going to burst into tears. And she did. She called up someone, may be her family back home. She spoke in Sindhi, very softly. I could hear just a few words. She was talking about some kind of wound, fracture, something something...pain, fall..something something.
I then gave it a thought for a second and looked down at her. Her dress near the knee was soiled and it had stains of blood too. It was simple to guess that she was injured. When she hung up, I asked her what was wrong and why was she sobbing. She told me that she fell down on the platform when she was dashed by the crowd when the local train arrived. She showed me her left foot. OMG! It was swollen. It reminded me of my Mom who too slipped while walking and got such swollen foot. It was a fracture! It was 20 months back.
This lady was in great pain. Many passengers noticed her agony. Fortunately there was a doctor on the adjacent berth. She came in to relieve her a bit. She requested people to give some hard and flat object like cardboard. She applied an ointment on the foot and tied it with a scarf to a piece of cardboard that a passenger had offered. And the other two passengers vacated the entire berth so that she could keep her leg straight. The doc gave her a pain-killer. Another lady offered her a cup of coffee. She now looked relieved. She dozed off for next two and half hours, till we reached Nasik. The doc helped her to alight. Her husband had come to receive her. She thanked the doc and all the passengers for being so kind to her.
Its good to see good people in our otherwise selfish world.
This incident assures me that humanity still exists on this planet. Otherwise, who would have helped that injured lady?
And how would I've got a seat?
Its 'Humanity' that binds us all.... atleast in bad times....
No comments:
Post a Comment