If you have been to
Goa, you would know how difficult it is to travel on a late morning. Even
though we have a good transport system at that time of the day in Goa, it is the
scorching heat that drains the energy from you. Incidentally, I was on my way
to office on one such morning. I was 5 minutes away from my office when I saw a
man lying on the other side of the highway. He just lay there in the heat, his
body still. No one stops by that highway. There are no shops around it, nor does
anyone reside close by. However, if this was a well dressed man, he would
probably be in a medical center by now. But this man looked like someone from
the lower class of the society. Like all of his other companions, he seemed far
away from home. Probably a contract laborer in search of a job. A glimpse of
him lying there would not surprise any of us. Who would lie there on a hot day?
Of course he must be a drunkard! Most of us believe so. Even I did. I was about
to take a turn to my right to reach office but just like I was riding on my bike,
my decisions were riding on my conscience. I was deciding on whether to check
out the situation or not. Do I help a drunkard lying by the road? Why not? Why
should I stop helping someone lying by the road just because they are drunk?
Wait. What if he is not drunk? What if this man is in an emergency situation.
No one stopping by to help him assuming he is just another drunk chap who
knocked himself out on his way home. So I decided to stop by.
I stooped and presented him with my round of questioning.
What happened? Where are you going? Are you drunk? Did someone beat you up? Okay,
these are the questions guys ask to other guys who they think are in trouble. I
got to know that he was working near a beach, his companions miffed at him and
he was heading to his home in another state! He also said his head was about to
burst with pain. Basically, he was not drunk, but he fainted in the heat. Next
thing I visited the nearest shop, apparently being Magsons(which I
visited for the first time ever), and got water and biscuits for the man. He hadn't
opened his eyes all the while. I made him sit and drink water. All this while,
a few people stopped by asking what happened and then went ahead. The heat was becoming
unendurable now. As he was drinking water, I was wondering if I could drop him
somewhere away from this heat. There was no shelter nearby. If I had to make
him sit behind me on the bike, he would definitely fall because it was
difficult for him to just sit on the ground. I was wondering whether to call an emergency ambulance. This was not an emergency, but what do we do of such people?!
God answered my questions immediately. There came the emergency ambulance right
in front of me. I was so surprised that I did not even indicate them to stop. But
they did stop by! I consider this nothing short of a miracle. A police van
followed and stopped by to. Now comes the time I name the characters.
Driver of ambulance: Driver bhai
The other guy in the ambulance who did not look like a
doctor: Smarty
The first cop: Daya
The second cop: Fredrick
Smarty and Driver bhai walked towards me, followed by Daya
and Fredrick. Smarty immediately put glucose in the water and asked the man to
drink it. The man did not respond. He had barely opened his eyes all this
while. Smarty then threatened to beat him if he did not drink the glucose. I
was dumbstruck! Here is a man who is lying in the scorching heat, not conscious
of his surroundings and you threaten to beat him if he does not drink glucose?!
This was just the first surprise for me. A few minutes passed by and the man drank
glucose. He was coming to his senses now but was barely able to speak. The cops
started questioning him. He gave the same reply of him heading home to a
different state. That did not please the cops. They stopped questioning him. I
asked them what is to be done. They said they will give him some cash and make
him travel by bus to the nearest town. It did not seem logical. I asked Driver
bhai to take him in the ambulance to the nearest government hospital to which
Smarty replied that the doctor would shout at him for getting a patient who
does not have anyone to take care of. I looked at Smarty and requested him to take the man to the nearest medical center at least to which he said that the ambulance offered only emergency services and this was not an
emergency. This started getting absurd now. I dared not argue with them as they
were the only source of help at that point of time. I asked them to drop him to
the nearest bus stand to which Driver bhai said that if “something” happened to
the man after he gets down from the ambulance, the onlookers will say that they
risked the life of a man by dropping him off the ambulance. The cops were discussing
among themselves that they would have taken the man to the nearest shelter if
they had got their "IV" van. But since they were in a “different” van, they could
not do so. You want me to argue with Indian cops? No, I would not. I continued
requesting but they seemed to think they were right. Daya then found a a group
of workers passing by and yelled at them to take this man with them. They smiled and went continued walking. Fredrick had a brighter idea! He suggested that
we tie this man to the ambulance and take him along. This seemed funny to them
but not to me.
Smarty was trying his best to revive the man but was getting irritated now. He started yelling “Why do you people have to take birth here
and trouble us? Why don’t you take birth in Pakistan?”. This was probably the
most irrelevant question I had ever heard. My vivas were better than this! The
cops were smiling. They even cursed the man for not responding. I requested
them to help me take this man to a place with some shelter. Then the cops agreed.
There was a small cross nearby. We shifted the man to the shadow of the cross.
It was around 11:30 am now, and the sun over our head. Just when I thought relief was
spawning over me, Daya let out a small scream. The man was resting his back on
the cross. Daya said that such things are the beginning of communal morchas and immediately
shifted the man away from the cross. I was losing my patience now. Smarty said
that the man was almost in his senses and they could now leave him there. I
requested again. The man was opening his eyes now. Fredrick now came forward and
asked the man to choose one of the vehicles, he reminded the man that the
ambulance was bigger so it would be more comfortable. Smarty immediately added
to take the police van as it would be better because of a famous political party leader. It seemed
like we could not beat Smarty in the topic of irrelevance.
The man was able to respond better now. After a few more
requests, Daya and Fredericks finally conceded to drop the man to the nearest
shelter. I saw the man off, and headed to work.
The cops and the ambulance did help the man, but they did
not do it respectfully. Our mindset and our beliefs hover in our mind even when
someone is in dire need of help. The man would have been lying in the heat for
a longer duration had he not got any attention. When finally help arrived, he
was mocked while he was helped. But God does not see the social status of any
man. He sent an ambulance, even while I was still thinking whether to call one
or not. And we need to be a reflection of God’s behavior. We need to help out
people before we judge them. Even if it is a drunkard lying in the heat, we
need to forgive his inebriated state and try to save his life.
Do stop by the
next time you see someone who is need of help. Because God helped you when
you needed help and even when you did not ask for it. After all, you, me and everyone in this world needs to be helped at some point or the other, and in some way or the other.
