Why people are awesome

I happened to think a lot these days, which is very unusual with me as I have very limited thoughts, and I have found that people are genuinely good irrespective of the belief they follow or irrespective of the race they are in. I felt that people have a natural inclination to help others which might be more related to genetics than the bible saying “Thou shall love thy neighbors”. I don’t think anyone who helps a complete stranger thinks that he is increasing his chance to the “Heavenly abode” or “Moksha” while involved in the act. I was trying to recollect few of the incidents where a complete stranger helped me without expecting anything in return. Here is my list.

First: I was eighteen years old and had just got my driving license. During some family function, I was asked to go and get my cousin who was coming from Bangalore to a particular place. This place was around 40 Km from my home and I had to travel through the ghat sections and narrow roads. This was my first trip alone after getting my driving license and to be frank, I was scared about travelling alone through the secluded area. Just some 15 Km from my home, my tires got punctured. I didn’t notice it and an auto driver who was overtaking me shouted at me. I stopped the car and got out; I didn’t have any clue on how to change the tires. Just as I was worried and was staring at the jacks in the car dickey, the auto driver who warned about my punctured tire came back. He said that he noticed that I was alone and he thought he could probably help me with this. In the next five minutes he replaced the tyres, with me just playing the role of supervisor. I didn’t even have the courtesy to say thanks or give a gracious smile. I was just happy that I could get my work done without moving a little finger. As he drove away, the ungracious little jerk that was me sped away just to manipulate the story later as an adventurous experience to my cousins.

Second: I was on a bike trip with my friend to Hampi. It was almost midnight and we were still 60 Km away from Hampi. We decided to stay the night at Bellary and leave to Hampi on the next day. I was driving and my friend was the pillion rider. I missed one Hump completely and this made the bike to skid. I could still balance the bike and myself and the bike were safe. But my friend lost the balance and he fell to the road. He suffered a bruise on face and small other injuries. As it was pitch dark, we were left with only the lights coming from the vehicles passing by. A person came in jeep and stopped near to us. He offered to help us. We were really skeptical about him. He told us that he doesn’t expect anything in return and was just doing this because someone helped him sometime back. We were still skeptical. He told he will take us to hospital or atleast help us in finding a decent hotel. First he took us to a small mess where my friend could clean up his wounds and he asked few of his friends who were studying nursing to help us get first aid. He was trying hard to help us and we were trying to wade him away thinking he was looking for monetary benefits. We never paid him, but thanked him a lot and exchanged numbers in case he came to Bangalore. I recently deleted his number while I was cleaning my contacts.

Myself and injured Vishnu at Hampi

Third: I was 2 min late to catch my Bus to my native and the bus had left in the busy Bangalore traffic. As I had the number of the conductor I called him up. He asked me to get into an auto and come to some hospital bus stop. I got into an auto and asked the auto driver to speak to the driver. They both spoke and the auto driver got to know the exact location where I was asked to go. He took me through the heavy Bangalore traffic. As we were moving through the traffic, I realized that I did not have enough money to pay the auto driver. I had a couple of ten rupee notes and 17 one rupee coins. I remained silent as I thought if I tell the auto driver about this he might not take me to my destination. He was a skilled driver and he used all his driving experience to reach the destination in time.  As I got out I told him I don’t have enough money with me and handed over couple of ten rupee and the 17 one rupee coin. I told him I will be back to Bangalore on Monday and then hand him the remaining money. I exchanged my phone number and also gave my driving license as a security to him. On the Monday after that I called him up and he came near to my office where I paid him the remaining money. To add to that there was another stranger in the bus, who was sitting beside me, after hearing my small adventure felt pity for me and offered to buy me dinner when the bus stopped in a remote location with no ATM’s around for dinner.

I am sure that everyone who read this will have many more and even better experiences than what I had. I was also cheated once when I was trying to help a stranger. Also I was given a ferocious look by a big bosomed lady when she mistook my signal to switch of the lights of her motor bike. But these setbacks doesn’t make me stop and I contribute in my own way in doing small things which might help the stranger without expecting my name to be written in “The book of life”