Karthik's musings

It happens only in India

I had blogged earlier about my trip to Arunachal Pradesh. Now, this incident happened when I was on my way back from Arunachal Pradesh. I boarded the taxi (shared with 10 other people!) at Dirang on my way to Tezpur. All the passengers were probably feeling sleepy, or were anxious of spending the complete night in the cramped taxi, and there was complete silence in the vehicle. That was till this gentleman from the middle row started a conversation with the person next to him, as if taking the initiative to break the ice. He slowly graduated to chat with the guy next to me in the front row. As it turned out, the guy sitting next to me was a budding boxer who was on his way to Bomdila enroute to a training camp.

Next in line of his attack was me. We did a round of introduction and as it turned out, the gentleman was also travelling to Guwahati. That made it the two of us who would be travelling from Tezpur to Guwahati the next morning. Mr.Chiranjib Dhar works for SBI at some remote place about 30kms east of Tawang and was on his way to join his family at Guwahati for holidays. He was glad to know that I will also be travelling till Guwahati, probably because he got a bakra to talk to!

At Tezpur, we boarded the same bus that would take us to Guwahati around 1pm. Enroute I told him that my flight from Guwahati is at 6pm. Immediately, he insisted that I come over to his house, get fresh, have lunch and then depart to the airport. I insisted that that was not necessary. My plan was to go directly to the airport, use the bathroom there and have lunch at the airport itself. However, Mr.Dhar insisted that I be his guest. He graciously used my cell phone to call his house in Guwahati asking them to arrange food for me.

At his house, I was accorded a warm welcome, shown the bathroom to get fresh and was served very delicious Bengali meal. Mr.Dhar's elder sister, who stays with them, was a great host was prepared a multi-course meal with two Bengali sweets as desserts. Finally, Mr.Dhar dropped me at the road, booked an autorickshaw to take me to the airport and finalized the price with the rickshaw driver so that he does not charge me more.

This kind of love and affection towards an unknown co-passenger is quite rare in today's materialistic world. I was uplifted by the care and affection shown to me by that family. I guess the best way I can pay them back is by paying it forward.

Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed.
-Swami Vivekananda