April 8, 2008 - a day it was..
From an almost nite out, but an hour's sleep, to a 0600 hrs train to kolkata, a fine payment in the train, another movie alone!, roaming around, fooling around in kol, lots happened.
Near the end at the Kharagpur station, on my return.. I met a sight that pained me. I saw a man lying in a dark corner, shivering as when you do under an attack (daura, i presume). A few others like me stopped. Lots looked, said, "Koi madaad karo uski" and left.
I was thinking what to do. Well, all I had done was read in the papers that when help is needed most, thats when our aam aadmi decides to leave. I said to myself, I am definitely not leaving. But, wat to do. Had no hospital number with me either.
Among the three four there, no one was going ahead. They were scared. He can be anyone, ab aise kaise karein kuch. Had short cropped hair. Some said, any one has leather shoes, usse kuch ho jaye.
A police man came along. We said, 'dada, dhekun na. Kuch kar sakte hain'. He replied, 'Haan! Meh hi mila tha. Itna lagaw hai to aap jao bhae. Aa jate hain, pata nahi kahan kahan se', and walked away. Indian Police "Sadev aapke liye"
Some one said, 'Arre, subah tak theek ho jayega. Abhi wahin sone do usko'! Another one said, 'Kahin mar gaya to'. Finally, a man standing beside me went near. I followed him. I had a Nokia 1100 with me, took it out and put the torch on (well, this is one thing that the other awesome phones dont offer :D ). We started saying 'dada, bhaiya. dhekun. suno' No one was touching him still. Shouts of 'kisi ke paas pani hai thoda' went unheard.
Then, a local probably came on. Saw the scene, got some water in a glass. We splashed it on his face. He opened his eyes. Saw the torch light. But was still almost unconscious. Then, the guy in front of me touched him, held his arm, tried to bring him into a better position. The scene was killing me. 'This is in at a place like kharagpur railway junction. Wat about somewhere else, at some sparsely populated place. Wat if no one came by. Would he lie there like that, left to perish'.
We tried to get him together. His handbag had fallen over. Suddenly, his phone rang. Another guy, behind me, went ahead, tried to get the phone out from his pant pocket. In the process, he says, ' Dekho ab aise kisi ka phone nikalna theek nahi hai, lekin ab aise meh kya karein'. Who was he saying this to, explaining to us, that he was doing it coz he had to and he didnt want to!
When the phone was at the brink of coming out, I extended my hand and took it. Everyone said,'phone karo usko jiska phone aaya tha'. It was a missed call. I searched for a home number. But, thought that calling up phone would only create chaos as he was at the railway station, away from home. Called on the missed number. It wasnt in the contact list. Spoke to him, the person was at the station, had come along with the man; had gone over to the atm.
He came over, we finally got together, lifted the man, got him on to his feet. He was in a state, where if no one held him tight enough, he would fall. Handed all the stuff, to the man's friend. The guy lying on the ground turned out to be some one from the Kolkata Police!! Wah re Indian Police, I thought (for the police guy who had walked away)
We made the guy sit outside the station, but he toppled over to the ground. Rotated a bit, and seemed like he went over to sleep. We said, take a taxi, take him to the hospital nearby. His friend was nahi nahi theek hai. Hum kar lenge. Dekh lenge. Dhanya wad. We all left.
Dont know wat to make of this incident. I look at the world, then look at the world. Why were we all scared to go ahead and help him? The police guy. The man could have died, coz of our delay as well. But, who cared. Few did (thanks heavens).
Look at myself, and feel, will someday, give it back. Have been so lucky, so privileged. Fate gave it to me. But, not to him, not to so many. Will give it all back, some day. Pray that day comes.
Till then, I keep walking.
Keep walking
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