Disappointment.

My recent post on Facebook read-

Reading a Random update on TOI App..
http:/www.mumbaimirror.com/…/Actress-dra…/articleshow/45484028.cms

Without going into the truth of incident, what caught my attention is that no one came to help the lady. Again, it is not about the 'lady', but sheer insensitivity of the mute spectators.

Where this observation stems from and what prompted me to post it is that I had a minor accident last week. My scooter slipped. I stood up, came home, left stunned at lack of humanity that demanded someone to come forward to help me pick my stuff up.

So, again, it is not about getting into someone else's 'panga' but a very basic urge to help.

But then, for that, you have to be sensitive !

But even after the posting, the bitterness in my heart did not go away. It was deeply rooted. A part of me very strongly wanted to ‘see’ a change. You may be thinking that amidst all the issues of apparently greater importance that any country is facing, why am I bothered about the fact that no one helped me when my scooter slipped. 

It goes back to a humid September morning. I was driving to Chandigarh with my mother beside me. It was the first time that I had been able to convince my mom to let me drive on highway. But she was still so scared of letting me go alone that even though she herself cannot drive, she accompanied me. In retrospect, I thank her.

So it was a clear morning, my mother and I were in a general conversation, with ‘hai apna dil to awara’ in background setting the mood for my first drive. It had only been 25 kms on highway when suddenly, a biker, that had bypassed us just a minute back was lying on the road. His Activa 30 meters away from his body. I still remember, I could see his back and I just shuddered. But how did this happen. We had seen that nothing hit him. I slowed, my mom panicked, seeing others pass by, she fumbled asking me to pass by too. Just one thought, ‘Would I be able to sleep today?’ and I stopped. But that’s all I could do. I did not have the courage to go near him. Standing on the roadside, I started sobbing. My mom went forward and turned him to see his face. It was red with blood flowing from his nose and forehead and bruised cheeks. Mom checked for his pulse. He was alive. The blood shook me but somehow I managed to scream for help. A few cars slowed, saw and went. I was partly crying, my mom was screaming for help, and that boy was lying. A few men on cycle stopped, joking among themselves about how we would have hit the boy and then went on while I distinctly remember literally begging for help. It stuck to us that a police case was to follow but then I guess it mattered less than a life. Then a young man in his late 20s stopped, he introduced himself from Police services and leaving his bike there, he volunteered to help and drive us to the nearest hospital. We got the boy laid down in the back seat of our car and reached hospital.

But because this incident is not about that boy, or that policeman or me or my mother, I shall not go into further details. It is about the thought that would have haunted me for a long time had I not stopped. Shouldn't that happen to all of us? Do you not as a parent, brother, husband, friend hope that your loved ones find someone to help them when you are not around? Someone to save them from harassment, someone to help them gather their stuff and lift their scooter, someone to take them to the hospital if that be the case. If you want that for them, where are you when that other is not your child, sister, wife or friend?  So the issue is not with a country but with the changing face of humanity. Are we sure that we want to continue heading in this direction?

Because, you may want to know, the boy is a class 12^th student and is now doing fine.