Thursday, December 6, 2007

Man – Kind

There are lots of chat shows these days on road rage, terrorism, divorce blah blah blah… chaired by the intellectuals of urban India and some 50 mute participants. At the end of the show, all will raise their hands in consent for “MAN – KIND.” The moment lights gets off people watching it and the so-called intellectuals will become the famous three monkeys.

In the fast paced urban life, I have never seen anybody stopping their vehicle to help the elderly to cross their road or helping a break down vehicle. All of them will roll up their windows to enjoy the music and the power of AC in the car. Everyone including me does the same.

Last week on our pilgrimage to sabarimala, the driver banged the car on a huge stone kept by some lorry cleaner to move his loaded lorry on a steep rise. The guy moved on leaving the stone behind. I heard a bang underneath and realized something serious would have happened. We got out of the car and saw diesel flowing from the tank like water from an open pipe. I was damn irritated for being in the middle of a highway at nine in the night with no idea about the distance to the nearest town and clueless how to rectify. I was furious with the guy who had kept the stone there to the extent that the next day another news would have come in NDTV on road rage.

All who traveled being managers in reputed company all we could do was serious analysis on the situation and plans on path forward. Before we could finalize on the action plan couple of tough looking guys jumped from a jeep and rushed to us. Seeing their approach, I thought they are some dacoits and they will loot us. To my surprise, they sympathized with us on the situation and checked the leakage from the tank. They suggested us to drive the car to the nearest town that is 10kms away and check for feasibility in terms of welding the tank. They followed us until the nearest mechanic shop and on the way they have called up another mechanic to be ready for helping us. We were lucky enough to get the trouble sorted out in the first shop itself. The driver of the jeep called me 3 times and his dad called me once to enquire about the status and to know whether they could be of any help. Such a move floored me and I thought “MAN-KIND” is still there with people and only we urban honchos lack it. The mechanic took four full hours to rectify it and charged us only 350 bucks.

We moved from these villages to metros and we loose the heart to help each other. It is just that we should look out for helping others and not only seeking help. Close the windows to enjoy the AC but open the door of your mind to bring in happiness to others. Bring a smile on others face. Mankind will definitely live for another million years.