There are days in your life, which changes your way of thinking,
vision, perception, total mindset. A single spark leads to an eternal
enlightenment. These experiences and moments are everlasting. They leave
an extraordinary mark in your life. Life would be unfinished without
them. Such instances make the person who you are today. The
contradictions to such instances bewilder you.
That
was the time Katrina hit the coastal. Heavy rainfall, wind, breeze,
roads filled with water, stuck traffic on the road, public life was
slowed down for a bit for few days. And, yes,I was traveling from
Chennai to Bangalore. Due to the last minute decision,I couldn’t get
flight or train. The left option was bus. Booked the tickets and the
“cautious” me made me to book a cab too, realizing it would be difficult
to get an auto to the bus-stand in the night. The bus departure time
was 10 pm. Well, I was much ahead of time, so booked the cab for 7pm
itself. Always better to be early than miss the bus, is the humble
principle which enchants me! The cab didn’t turn up. Non-receipt of
call, no response,etc. made me to realize that the cab is not going to
turn up and I was right. I had no other way left but to catch an auto.
After all the bargains for money/route etc, got into an auto with an
old-aged driver.
After 10 minutes, the auto
driver,took a cross road, to which I objected, saying, it’s better to
take main road during night especially when it’s raining. But he said
“all main roads blocked, it will take 2 hours (normal distance – 20
minutes), so better to take cross road”, in Tamil. I could decipher that
much Tamil,thanks to my stay in Chennai and love for that language
developed due to Tamil music. After 15 minutes in the cross road, I
could see, water flowing on the road, somehow hesitated and conveyed my
worry to the driver. Well,he thought, what this girl would know about
Chennai roads. Of course, I wasn’t aware where I am. Next few minutes,
water started hitting my feet,gushing through auto from all sides. I
lifted my feet, few inches up. But that wasn’t helping. Soon, I
realized, that we are wedged, in the middle of nowhere. Pitch dark,
isolated, totally shady, water spouting on the road, all the roads
blocked, with this old man, auto and me. I started calling my friend.
Well, what she could do? She informed my landlord and asked them to
reach me soon. I get a call from my landlord saying “not to worry, we
will come and pick you up, tell us where you are”. I had no clue. I
landed in nowhere. Well, asked this old man, who was trying his best to
move the auto, neither did he know.
Hmm
Hmm…..auto didn’t move an inch, how will it-with that much of water on
the road? Helpless, yes! Amidst all these, all I could feel was
“helpless”. Well, thanks to my friend,who was persistently cheering me
up over the phone. In that darkness, I could see two men coming from the
other side of the road, pushing a bike in the watery road. I gathered
myself and just could utter one word “Help”. They stopped. In my English
mixed Tamil, I just said – “Have to reach bus stand and have a bus at
10 pm”. The guy responded in Tamil, “road is filled with water ahead,
that’s why we had to come back. But again,there is no other road for you
to go. You have to walk further 3 km in the same watery road”.
Even
in catastrophe, life gives choices and I had two- go back (which is
again – 8-9 kms) or go ahead.I chose the latter. These two men asked me
to walk along with them. After10 minutes of walk, one guy asked my
laptop bag and the backpack because,the water level on the road was
increasing and he saw me struggling to carry the same. He kept them on
this bike and was pushing it further. After few minutes again, they
realized that, bike cannot move any further. So,first guy asked the
second guy to take the bike back and park it somewhere and go home. And
he decided to walk with me further.
This man
took my bags on his head and started walking with me. I couldn’t do
anything but thank him in my mind. At the same time, my inner mind was
totally scared. With utmost fear,with all my life in hand, I was
walking. To increase my fear, after sometime, I could notice big line of
all NP trucks parked on either side of the road, in that speckled
shadowy road. I just put my head down and continued walking. The
overflowing water had no limit and it kept on increasing.Water level
increased till my waist. This man said “please don’t walk on the sides,
there might be manholes/ gutter; please walk beside me and if you have
no problem, you can hold my hand”. I had no other choice left,but to
trust him. And, yes, after all that walk for 1 hour, my judgment
couldn’t go wrong. He is trustworthy. All I was telling myself is “you
have to get out of this, even if it takes till next day morning; and of
course, you don’t want to die in this water”.
There
was steep silence, except the water flowing sound. We had nothing else
to talk. I was all drenched,so was he. But he ensured that my bags are
safe in his hand, so is me.And, after almost walking for 1 and half
hour, he showed me some light at the end of the road. “That’s the bus
stand madam”, he slowly voiced.Yes, for a moment I felt, I survived and
am still alive. And, my feet kind of hurried a bit in relaxation.
Finally, reached the bus-stand and he kept my bags down from his head. I
had no words to thank him; no emotions left to express my feelings; no
gestures to convey my gratitude. All I could say was “Sir, you saved my
life and I owe you”. He smiled, I felt so small in front of him, when I
forwarded Rs.1000 currency note to him. He enlarged beyond my mind and
respect, when he politely denied it and said“Be safe madam”. Yes, if
there are people like him everywhere, we all will be safe. No doubt
about it. He didn’t agree to take money from me.All I could do was –
handover a packet of sweets which I had with me.I just asked “at least I
want to know your name sir”. He replies with the same smiley face “I am
a flower vendor here in the market madam. People call me Perumaan”.
Perumaan, in Tamil means “Noble Man”; and he really is!!! Words fail me
to thank that noble man, and tears flow incessantly when I think of him
in retrospect.
I hear people saying Tamilians
are rude, Kannadigas are selfish or people from specific state are
arrogant and they never like Kannadigas, Marathis, Gujarathis, Northies
etc. We attach stigmas,we generalize, we tag people, region, state,
nation, gender with our own prejudices. Yes, constantly there are
politically motivated atrocities,outrages etc. between nations, states,
regions, people, community, race and religion. However, a good human
will be good to everyone irrespective of who the fellow human is. If
someone is good to you because you are from the same religion,
community, nation, race, gender etc, then they are worse humans. In that
disaster, that man didn’t bother about my region, language, color,
gender, state, status etc. He treated me as a fellow human. Whenever I
come across incidents like humans killing another human, raping a girl,
assaulting another person,the picture of this noble man waves in my mind
and I feel, there is still bastion of hope, there is always light in
the end of the tunnel, which makes it worth living for…
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