A Suspicious Gentleman

A Suspicious Gentleman

3 mins
9.1K


Let's go back 5 years in time. Those are my B.tech days, I was returning to my college(NIT Calicut, Kerala) from my home town through Chennai. I was waiting for my next train at Chennai Central Railway Station.

As you know waiting is a part of our Indian life, I always had a habit to avoid boredom in those situations. I select an interesting person around and observe what they do closely. As usual I picked a guy. He looks like a north Indian, well dressed. I observed him for 10 minutes and noticed that he was also doing same (observing people) but not one, he was checking on each and every person around me with a sneaky look. Accidentally our eyes met twice and he had started walking towards me seriously (In mind "oh gosh! I am just watching you dude,chill"). I have introduced myself and he had said that he was a manager, works in Delhi in one of the big IT company. While I was saying that I was happy to meet him, he started asking me 100 rupee (In mind "What the...?"). I said "Sir! I am surprised to hear that", his fingers were trembling now, eyes become red and he started explaining me what had happened to him as tears were rolling down from his eyes.

Last night, he got down at Chennai central as part of his journey from Delhi to Cochin to meet a friend. He was waiting for his next train which would be there in 2 hours. As he was feeling sleepy due to a long journey, he decided to sleep for few minutes, removed his chain,watch,wallet,mobile (out of fear from thieves) and cautiously kept everything inside his luggage and slept on it. Boom!! After sometime, he was opening his eyes slowly fearing that he might have overslept and missed the train. He was not accurate but yes he missed the train, only after missing his entire luggage (Somebody might have snatched while he was in a deep sleep). Nobody was answering him properly as he was not speaking Tamil or any other south Indian language at least. He contacted police nearby but they were just keeping him waiting. It was evening the next day now, he was hungry as he didnot eat anything in past 20 hours. He need money to eat. But it was embarrassing for him to ask money. So, he tried to hold on hoping that his luggage would be back through police. But it was not easy to withstand hunger pain as you know. He tried explaining this to some of the shop keepers hoping that they might provide food but he did not succeed. Most of the people ignores him just because of his language. Finally, He came to me and cried explaining me everything. He told that he felt like a beggar asking people for money to eat. Even I was very sad hearing his story and immediately took him to a nearby shop, had meals with him, bought some snacks and gave him. He didnot remember his friend's mobile number (Now a days we just save everything in mobile and we remember nothing. Your mobile gone!! You are gone!!!) I booked a bus ticket to cochin and finally gave him the "100 rupee note" (For auto charges, luckily he knew the address of his friend). He took my number and told that he will return my money after reaching his friend. He left.

This was my encounter with a situation which taught me so much. I understood that whatever we do, whoever we are, whatever we earn does not matter much. Life can put you in any situation at any time. "A Manager who earn 1.5 lakhs per month has begged for money to eat" explains what Life & situations can do. On a lighter and ending note, I started remembering some important numbers and avoided sleeping in stations thereafter.


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