The good Samaritan... Oops, Indian!

She was on her way home when she saw 2 fairly pink, tall and fit men of another country huddled by the cabs and autos. They seemed to have an argument. She was tempted to ask what the matter was but opted out of it as she knew that it would hurt their self esteem to seek her help. As she continued walking away from the commotion, she heard one of the handsome foreigners call out to her for help. She saw that he was waving at her and saying, “Excuse me! Do you speak English? We need help.”

She went closer and asked what the matter was. “Do you speak English? Can you translate our message to the cab driver?” one of them asked. She nodded and he showed her the address from his watsapp conversation and said, “We booked the cab to this destination, the driver drove us for quite sometime, taking us nowhere and finally says that he doesn’t know where this place is and asks us to take another cab.” Assuming there was some communication gap between the two parties, she asked the cab driver in hindi, “Bhaiyya! Kya hua?” He said that he drove them for 10 km but the GPS isn’t showing the proper address and was insisting them to hire another cab and pay him for his ride. That was outrageous and she knew it was some cheap trick of the driver who intended to take advantage of the situation as these people were new to this place. But the bigger picture was that, it would ruin the country’s image. “What was the “Incredible India” ad about where Aamir Khan relentlessly stresses on athidhi devo bhava?” she thought. 

Meanwhile the foreigners were flocked by autowalas and other cabbies who promised to take them wherever they wanted. Even to their home land. Phew!!!! She told the cab driver that they will not pay any money to him as he had cheated them and spoke to one of the autowalas who agreed to charge them as per the meter reading, which sounded fair. She saw the foreigners leave in the auto not before thanking her profusely and genuinely with grateful smiles. She managed to mutter, “My pleasure.” Their smiles for sure lifted up her moods and she continued towards home.

She smiled at the irony of the fact that “We Indians, can very well sort out the problems of some random foreigners when we have no clue on how to solve ours.” But for someone like her, who receives no appreciation for squeezing in her daily to-do list in the available 24 hrs time. Who is constantly racing against time trying to meet deadlines at office and home, with sleep deprived eyes. Who receives no appreciation for taking out time for the family and constantly trying to make their lives better irrespective of her state of mind and health. For someone like her whom everyone come back to, asking for more and telling her that “She could have done better”, this incident brought back a fleck of confidence and sent her home humming.