When we walk around the heritage site or pilgrim places across, we always come across people requesting for help for going back to their own village or native. The common reason they say is that they have lost their money or someone had pick pocketed their valet. Very often we distrust just because we do not know him, a stranger and doubt on his intensions. Many of the times even our heart try to influence our mind to help them out, but the mind which always looks deep at the pockets and put a stopper there by resisting providing any help to a stranger. We always judge the intention of that person, based on our own assumptions and past experience, Often we make a comment that he is a dunked and needs money for buying alcohol. We try to examine him based on his dressing sense, the way he appears and so forth. We fail to understand the helplessness that the person is undergoing, the mental agony of lost document and stress of arranging alternatives to reach the loved ones. We doubt and mistrust them and their story. In most of the cases we just abuse and ignore. I remember one of such cases, It was an evening I along with my friends were standing near a tea shop, a man appeared and started begging in front of a group of people who were chit chatting for help for buying an train ticket to join his family. He narrated the story of how his lost his valet. He had come for some work in Mumbai and the train reached during early morning and he saw people sleeping in the platform and so he rested there. When he got up in the morning, he found that his valet containing his document and money was missing. A new place, no one to help and nothing to eat. He made-up his mind to ask the strangers in the city to help me out to buy a ticket so that he can reach his home, we were watching him begging and plead for help him. When he came to us, out of curiosity and making fun, we enquired how this had happened and why was he not attentive ?, why couldn’t he sought the help from police or seek help from his employer who had sent him. After hearing his part of the story, we realized and thought that we spend lot of money smoking, why not gift that amount and think we have spent on cigarette. I handed over some money; We were surprised when he refused to take the money and informing us, that he is not begging for money but actually looking for a day’s work to earn and buy a train ticket. We were taken aback on his thought ! We come across in daily news, people just cheating to make money, earn prestige, and showoff the pride. This came as an revelation that thoughts of the needy may be different, however it is care and sympathy needed to come over. We arranged food for him as he said he had nothing from the morning. But this incident has given enough thoughts to realize the pain when someone lose money and become helpless in new city when everywhere and everything is new and strange.
I remembered the whole incident, when I lost my valet when I was an stranger in an new place. Although I was fortunate to make alternative arrangements, but this left me a thought what about helpless people !
