In times where religious zealots dominate headlines and intolerance is the norm, I thought I’d share something that made me believe in the goodness of mankind.
I was 12-14 years old. We (mom, dad and I) were traveling through a 2nd class train compartment through bihar in india. Now this was 15 years ago - so sorry to anyone from Bihar, but traveling through that state by 2nd class railway was a nightmare then! (Why we had to make that journey is another story) The train was jam packed with a lot of rough looking men - and when I say jam packed, I mean there were two people per seat, and every square inch of the floor was occupied. There were just 2-3 women there other than me and my mom, so we were quite scared. The guy next to my mom was giving us weird looks. We were too scared to even get up and go to the loo. There were some young guys in the seat in front of us who kept pointing at us and talking amongst themselves. Then suddenly one of them rose from his seat and asked my mom and me to get up. Needless to say, we were terrified! Imagine our surprise when he politely offered us his seat (by the window, and thus away from the man who was ogling at us). He asked my dad where we were headed and told us not to worry, as they were going to the same city. We shared our dinner with them and passed the time till night. At night he and his friends made sure we got our respective berths to sleep (this would have been an almost impossible task for us since we were in no position to argue with the people around!). Our station came next morning - when we got off, this guy disappeared and got us a bag of fruits. Pointing at me, he said “Yeh hamari choti behen kay liye”. I still remember my mom and dad had tears in their eyes when they heard this. When we said goodbye, it was as if we were parting from lifelong friends.
I shudder to think what could have happened if it weren’t for these brothers of mine. I wish someday I could meet them again. Oh and did I mention, they were Muslims, and we Hindus, but that day it was humanity that shone through.
