True stories - kindness

True stories - kindness

I was on a return trip from Mumbai to Kerala and was waiting for the queue to board the plane when the airlines guy announced a fast track queue for privilege passengers, frequent fliers, mothers with infants and people requiring special assistance. A few people left our queue and joined the other line. I noticed that one guy, with his arm is in a sling and cast, quite obviously travelling alone, stayed put in our queue and moved along with us. I liked that resolute look of quiet dignity I saw in his eyes. As fate would have it, he was seated adjacent to me. I gave him a smile, confirmed with him that he was travelling alone and that I need not exchange my seat with anyone and helped him settle. I noticed he was having trouble with adjusting and buckling his seat belt and helped him do it. I assured him that I would help him, and told him to relax. He still seemed skeptic at my generous offer but was visibly much more relaxed when he enquired about what I do and realised I was a doctor going on leave. He then slowly started opening himself, told that he was a crane operator in Saudi and fell down from crane operators cabin one week back and the company was generous enough to sanction his full pay leave which was due and he was going home to visit his family. He was real jumpy about the prospect of meeting his family after 2 years and was excitedly telling about how his son was good at academics, his daughter was winning prizes at the youth festival and how he is getting his wife her favourite perfume as a surprise gift. By that time, the refreshments had arrived and I had helped him open his pudding, make his tea with milk powder, helped him arrange his tray table and opened his water bottle. He said that the airline staff in the international plane was much more compassionate and understanding and even confided to me <with a snigger> that they slipped him a couple of 'hot' drinks to 'ease him of the pain'. We spoke about the plight of mallu workers abroad, why people do it, the comforts and their struggles, everything. Through him I saw a lifetime of struggle, sacrifice, integrity and love. When we finally parted, after I helped him load luggage from the conveyor belt into his trolley, he said, "Thank you so much sir, I'm sorry that I seemed a little distant towards your helpful approach, but believe me when I say this, throughout the journey, nobody was this helpful and understanding to my troubles. May God bless you." I nodded my head and we parted, a content smile on my face.

Love for the fellow human being, strike one.

I told this story to my dad, and he began his own. 

I went to the medical college post office today to post your wedding invitation. Being a few minutes early, I had to wait for 15 mins for the person at the speed post/stamp counter to come. I was waiting, fiddling with my phone when a middle aged man came running in. He also was told to wait 15 mins. He seemed very disturbed and disappointed and was pacing around, mumbling to himself, very impatient. I asked him, "Is there a problem? What's the matter?" He said, "I've seated my wife in front of the doctors room at the radiotherapy unit, and I don't know when they'll call her. I need to be with her when they do call her, because she will never convey all her troubles and only I, who takes care of her, can do that. But I need to speed post this today, an application for some medical aid towards her cancer treatment, else the money'll get delayed." The man continued pacing around, still disturbed. "Do one thing", I told. "Give me the envelope and I'll post it for you." He suddenly stopped, looked at me suspiciously. "I am waiting for the same purpose, I'll post your letter also.", I repeated. "I don't know how much postal charge it will cost....", he said, still quite unsure of what he is doing. "Anyway it is going to be trivial, I am not going to take money from you, give it to me if you trust me and it will be done.", I offered a third time. Maybe hearing the sincerity in my voice, he quickly wrote the address on the envelope and handed it to me. "Thank you sir,", he said with palms together with respect. "Why do you do this??", he enquired. "Don't be silly.", I told him. "My dad always used to tell me to do at least one good deed a day. Thank you for giving me the opportunity today to fulfil my fathers wish. Please go to your wife and take good care of her, all will be well.", I replied. His voice broke, a glint of a tear came into his eye and he mumbled another thank you and hurried off.

Love for the fellow human being, strike two.

My mom, not to be left behind hearing all this, began her story.

The distance from medical college junction/ bus stop to the College per se, is about a kilometre. The RCC lies along the way, around 800m from the junction. 2 weeks back, I was driving to college from Medical College junction when I saw this family, walking by the side of the road. A mom, a father and a kid. The kid was bald and was wearing a green mask, so they were quite obviously going to Rcc from a distant place for cancer treatment. By their clothing and the fact that they decided to save 20 rupees on an auto by walking that one kilometre to Rcc, told me that they were financially not well off. I stopped the car by their side and asked them to climb in and told I'll drop them at the hospital. The kid looked excited but the parents looked doubtful. I told them that I am going in the same direction and opened the front door. They reluctantly climbed in. The child was very excited at his first ride in a Ford IKON and was in total amazement at the control knobs and stereo and ac. His mother had to hold his hands to prevent him from fiddling with the stereo controls. But I noticed that she never scolded the child. No words were exchanged and I dropped them off at RCC, the kid gave me the widest of toothless grins I have ever received while his mother mumbled a thanks. I proceeded to work as usual.

Today, exactly 2 weeks later, I saw them on the same road, but this time the kid was looking behind expectantly for something. His face lit up like sunrise when he saw my bright red car. I stopped again and opened the door, no doubts were raised this time as the family climbed in, the dad in front with the kid this time and needing less restrain. 2 minutes and another wide toothless grin later, I was about to depart from Rcc when the dad told me. "Thank you madam for what you have done. For the first time in his 12 cycles of chemo for my sons leukaemia, today morning he did not cry and did not refuse to come out from the house for his painful chemo. He was so thrilled by his car ride 2 weeks back that he expected you to come today also. Gods grace that we met today also. I haven't seen him smile this wide for many months now." The dad left me and I continued to work, totally lost for words.

Love for the fellow human being, strike three

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And in this short human form lasting just a few years, in a world billions of years old, we should turn the common suffering of all humans into hope for the future. - Madiba

Epilogue - Food for thought.

My sister, reading this said, "you are missing a point here, aren't you?" I braced myself for something wise and philosophical when she continued, "It is quite a normal and natural thing for everyone in our family to do what you guys did. But all three times, initially you were met with skepticism and a defensive attitude. On doing your act of kindness, it was treated as if you guys had done something great and your generosity was out of the world. Which, u know it and I know it, it was not. It was a simple straightforward action of kindness, one which we will normally do on any other day given an opportunity, just because of our respect to our fellow human being. "

"The society has degraded to such an extent that the simplest of acts of kindness is viewed with lots of doubt and when done, perceived with out of the world rarity, because actually, such attitude is, in itself, is quite rare. We should all be ashamed of ourselves."

Love for the fellow human being, game, set and match.