He went around doing good!!!

On 24th of March at 11.30 pm I was coming back from Koyambedu after sending off two of my friends to Bangalore and it was too late. So I was thinking how I would get back, should I go for sub-urban train or state bus?? In my dilemma I gave a call to my friend Meenakshi and she told me that there are intercity buses available always.

I board a bus at 11.30 pm and as it was late in the night and the bus route
was totally new to me, I had instructed the bus conductor to intimate when the bus reached in Tambaram. Bus was in full speed and putting confidence in conductor I was traveling. Meanwhile I fell into a nap due to the hard work of the day and when my nap was disturbed and looked around I saw a board SRM college, I knew SRM College is far away from Tambaram.

I got up from my seat and asked conductor that where the bus has reached and he asked me in return where I had to get down and I told him it was in Tambaram. He starred at me and was murmuring something and threw me out of the bus and was not bothered to listen to what I had to tell him.

It was 12.30am and I didn’t know exactly where I myself was lost and I crossed the road with the hope of getting a bus. I saw a truck and there was the driver in it and I asked him whether he could give me a lift if he was driving to Tambaram side but he asked me to walk ahead may be 1 km or so, that I could find a bus stop. Thanking him I started walking ahead…….

Hardly had I walked for 5 minutes then I heard the sound of a truck being stopped behind me and I turned back, it was the same truck driver. He asked me to get into the truck, in my excitement I jumped into the truck. I was so happy because I didn’t have any clue how to get back. We started taking and he asked me where I was going and I narrated the whole story to him. In our conversation he told me he was Subramaniyan a truck driver from Chennai. We were almost 15 km away from Tambaram.

As the truck was going in the Bangalore direction he stopped the truck where the road takes a deviation to Tambaram side and he explained to me how I could reach Tambaram. I was totally broke and I had not had much money left with me to give to truck driver because I had to spend money on booking ticket for my friends and shooting also cost me in terms of drinks and bus fare. So with a little hesitation I took what was left in me and I took Rs. 30 (Because Rs. 30 nothing for what he did for me) from my purse and extended my hand towards him, but he denied the money, he did not do it because it was only just Rs. 30. Hardly could he know that it was only just Rs. 30 because it was dark inside. I insisted him to have the money but he asked me to keep the money with me that I would need to catch an auto and reach back soon and safe.

I climbed down from truck and I crossed the road, all these while the driver was there itself. He made sure that I crossed the road safe and took the right deviation and at my surprise when I turned back after a decent distance of walk still he was there and I waved my hand in thanks and gratitude of the great help, only then he started driving ahead. I was thinking that what that man has to do all these to me. We were strangers and still strangers and probably never going to meet again. Normally all these truck drivers give lift to get money but this man didn’t take any money from me. Was not he an angel sent by God for my help?

It was another 30 minutes walk so I started walking, my roommate Sam was waiting there for me to get into the room as the key was with me. As I was walking all alone in the midnight I had Sam, Naomi, Gayatri and Gifty in chatting over phone so I kept walking and finally at 1.30 am I reached in my room. I had to sit for editing for our short film.

The moral I learned: In our day to day life we get so many opportunities to help others which really doesn’t cost us anything. There are people who are badly in need of our help and attention. Even if we can’t help them our good gestures, behaviors and good smile can mean a lot to them. We need not to be highly educated nor a post graduate degree of social work to render our hands for help. What we need a little heart, time and attitude for that, so it doesn’t make any difference be it a truck driver or a social worker. Let us also go around doing good………………………..