Last month, I was driving back after a long and hectic day at work from my workplace in Hinjewadi (outskirts of Pune) and met some crazy traffic on the way..Well, its nothing new…I am always suicidal by the time I reach home. But to make the situation worse that day, I encountered a bunch of onlookers who were fascinated by something in the middle of the road, bang opposite my building lane. Out of curiosity, I parked my car and came to see what the fuss was all about. I have no clue what struck me that day as I am not the kind of person (like most of you) who would do anything other than crashing head down on my couch after a crazy day at work. I just don’t know why I went back to see what was wrong on the road that day..
I reached the spot and try to peep over the crowd to get a good view of the ‘subject’. My jaw dropped when I saw a small kid (must be 8 years old max) sitting bruised covered in muck! It seemed like he had fallen into an open gutter. Shit! His fancy looking bicycle which was lying near him seemed to indicate that he was no slum kid. The kid was howling like nobody’s business. While most of the onlookers were busy making ‘tch tch’ sounds, some were seen asking him his address and parent’s phone number. Needless to say, the kid was in no position to tell them anything. He looked like a lost puppy.
As I turned away assuming there are a lot of people already trying to help the kid, I heard a local hawker comment ‘Arre..kal bhi koi gir gaya tha yahan pe..ye toh ek hafte se khula pada hai”. Nothing new, right? I keep on reading about these kind of stories every other day. But that was the first time I felt so terribly bad about this whole situation. I just walked back home feeling numb. For me, that day, it was something much more than sympathy towards that kid. It was that feeling of utter helplessness that was killing me. I kept on asking myself..Can I really not do anything about it?