The good samaritan

I went to IIT Roorkie recently to meet my students spreading the message of thoughtful living in the campus through their seminars,workshops and interactive sessions among the inmates of the campus.And yes they are pursuing their own M.Tech from the same college.They were eager to see me there.I have been promising the visit since quite long yet it was still pending.So I decided to encourage them by being there personally and infuse myself with energy by spending some time among students.Everything went on fine about my visit except one thing,the return train was around 05.00 AM and in the name of public transport only cycle rickshaws were at hand in the campus.Station is about 25-30 minutes ride from there and a rickshaw was arranged to drop me off at the appointed time of departure.Somehow we got delayed in leaving the hostel and so very little time was left to reach the station in time.

While sending me off the rickshawallah was told about paucity of time and need to reach faster.Roorkie is a small place with all the important landmarks and buildings of the town in close proximity.So I was enjoying the serene , natural and ethnic ambiance of the city at that glorious hour on my way to the station.Suddenly,I realized that my rickshaw is moving unusually fast and the gentleman driving it was paddling feverishly taking swift turns in the lanes,at times even dark.I had certain suspicions about his whole behaviour.Ever since we were together,he hasn't exchanged even one word with me.His whole face and body was covered with a thick blanket.He was not taking the main roads exactly during the journey.He seemed in unusual hurry to reach some where.I decided to make him take notice of my presence by posing a question to him, "what's your name bhai?" He didn't pay attention to my words.I reiterated ," Aapka naam kya hai bhai?".This time he chose to reply me ," Nooruddin Khan". "Yahan kitne dino se rickshaw chalate ho?" . He maintained his speed of paddling the rickshaw ,yet replied after a pause for a while "four years".I was about to shoot my third question,but he reached me to the station by that time.I was still unable to see his face,but impressed with the speed at which he drove me to the station.But I couldn't stop myself from shooting my volley of questions before parting from him.He was amused to see some unknown person showing so much interest in him.He replied to my all queries so shyly, his eyes avoiding my curious eyes,"Saab,if I hadn't paddled so fast,you wouldn't have been here in 10 minutes.I chose to take the bylanes because they saved time.Train chhut jati toh hostel wale bhaiya ko mein kya jawab deta?phir aap unke guest hain toh mere bhi guest huye na?" I was hit with his plain and uncomplicated way of stating the facts and his emotional commitment to my objective in reaching there in time.Being born and brought up in metros,we often have experience of being taken for a ride by the auto or the taxiwallah,but here was a man who made my objective as his own goal, even at the cost of great personal discomfort.I was washed off my feet by his genteel demeanour,geniality and sincerity.I face to face with genuine, humane and compassionate facet of life after a long time.And last but not the least,here too was a person ,who was a khan ,but not a terrorist.When I requested him for a photograph,he felt a bit shy,but obliged to make me happy.I felt great with this simple but powerful experience of my life.