Random Act Of Kindness

In today's world where things change so fast, people rarely have time for human bonding. The advent of various social networking sites has increased our virtual contacts leaving us in isolation. We run after recognition from strangers in the internet while we seldom try to understand how our closest people feel about us. In this routine quest for materialistic assets sometimes people who we don't know break the monotony by their random act of kindness.

I am going a share a true event happened to me. When it comes to travel I prefer trains than buses. So obviously I plan months before a holiday for my journey. I hate the rush of Tatkal system and getting waiting list is a nightmare because the probability of confirmation is really thin. It was one of those festival times where I had booked my tickets prior months. But unfortunately I got product release support that week and I couldn't make it on train. So I tried the bus option but instead of taking the direct bus I took bus to nearby place as my friends suggested since the frequency of buses to reach my destination was more there. The bus I took didn't go inside the bus station instead took the by pass road. So I was asked to get down at the by pass road and was advised by the conductor that it was walk-able distance to the bus station. It was late around 11 PM when I got down and I saw an auto near by. I asked the auto driver how to reach the bus station.

He pointed towards a direction and asked to walk for 10 to 15 minutes. I assumed it must around 0.8 km and started walking. Just before taking 3 or 4 steps the auto driver called me again. I responded and he said he would drop me himself.

Before proceeding please understand that I have faced many situations where auto drivers asked 50 Rs or even more for a mere distance of 2 km. This happens especially when it's late at night or during early mornings when other options of travelling is less. Naturally, I thought he was also trying to charge more money as it was past 11 PM. So I declined his offer. As if a mind reader, he told he didn't want any money. When I still hesitated, he told that he made his share of income and didn't try to rob me. He said that he wanted to help me as he is also going that way. I was embarrassed and got into the vehicle. These events could have happened in anybody's life. It seems like a simple man to man help but what happened next is the interesting part.

The auto would have moved hardly 100 meters and there was heavy traffic. There were big buses and travelers occupying the road. I told the driver that I would walk from there because of the traffic. Then the auto driver got out and asked the car driver in front to move a bit front. When the car moved the auto driver took a sharp left turn and started riding through the small path available between the road and shops. It was a scary drive and somehow he managed to reach opposite to bus station and stopped there. I asked why he took the harsh path when I could have easily walked. His reply really stunned me. He told that he wanted to help me in spite of my hesitation. So it was his responsibility to stick to his words. He also added it makes no sense to ask me to walk another 700 meters when he offered to help. I tried to offer him money which he rejected saying what he did was an help.

We cross many people in our day to day life and this auto guy will be in my memory for a long while. It's hard to meet such people and I really think his random act of kindness is worth mentioning.