Thursday, June 03, 2010

On Humanity Grounds……

The other day a very interesting incident occurred which left me with a smile when I was boarding the 6:15 P.M local on the way to my house. I have been smiling at the thought of that incident ever since it has occurred so I thought I might as well post about it…

It was the usual rush at CST…the regular hustle bustle and the regular feeling of asking the question to yourself “By any chance does the whole of the population of India reside on this platform”…anyway, after the usual pulling, pushing and tugging I reached the platform for the harbor line train…..Now, after a lot many life threatening incidents that I have happened to experience previously I have made a policy to stand as much away from the platform rail line on which the train is announced to arrive shortly rather than do the opposite as per the usual junta’s policy…so like every day I stood as much away as I could so as to not fall prey to the rushing of people for the other train due to arrive on the adjacent platform…And as usual the train arrived and before it could halt there was the usual scurrying of the ladies and girls and the usual pushing, pulling, screaming , wrestling etc for the ladies compartment…

Now on that day it so happened that in the usual struggle to get into the train first so as to occupy a seat a young girl who seemed like a college going girl in her early twenties happened to be fast enough to push through the crowd and hold the railing of the moving train just before it halted…trying to board it…in that very moment a lady who seemed to be in her early fifties happened to grab this young girl by the collar of her t-shirt and pulled her back to the station platform and tried to get past her….now by the time anyone of them could succeed the rest of the ladies crowd happened to get near the train and in the maze it so happened that that young girl although a little taken aback managed to get through the crowd and got a seat for herself whereas the lady although ahead was a little too slow to defeat the crowd…

Once everybody settled comfortably in the train…some having accomplished their desire of attaining a place and some having failed miserably with a frown on their faces…a few other give ups like me walked into the train and leisurely stood at a chosen comfortable place…now , it was the young girl’s turn to take her revenge and satisfy her ego so she addressed the lady who had pulled her back by her collar who was standing rt beside her clutching to a handle…and the conversation was as follows :

Girl : Hey you

Lady : Yes?

Girl : Aapne mujhe dhakka kyun diya

Lady : For the same reason why you pushed everyone and were standing ahead of the crowd

Girl : Sorry!!??....For what reason?

Lady : Simple, because even I needed a seat in the train

Girl : Oh, is it so?! So, u thot u could push me past without caring if I would fall off the platform onto the track…what if I were your daughter would u have still done the same?…Even on humanity grounds?

Lady : No, I wouldn’t have…because if you were my daughter you wouldn’t have kept sitting while you see your mother who is double ur age stand for 1 hr for the whole way…on humanity grounds…

Girl : Neither would my mother have pushed me off the platform and left me to die under the rail tracks…valuing her comfort more than anyone’s life..

And the conversation ended there. …The girl continued to sit though and the lady stood all the way…with a safe conclusion that Humanity word has ceased to exist…..and it looks like everyone is aware of its non-existence as well…

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