Amazing to reflect on Gandhi in your closing thoughts. I'm a worshipper of Gandhian philosophy. After reading about your Singaporean way of graciousness, I remembered one incident that changed my whole narrative about 'at least being human when required most'. At least 15 years ago just before a major festival, I was traveling in an overly crowded general compartment of Indian railways. People were stuffed like you fit 10 in a box of one. However just FYI, those who know about India also know it very well that the trains are the heartbeat of Indian Public transport. So it wasn't a big deal for a young boy stuffed like that. But what and how would you feel when you see so many old people also traveling in the same compartment. Not only the old people but also woman who were mostly the wives of those who worked in brick klin and returning to their village for festive holidays. I wasn't alone as well. In fact one of my college friends, who was with me, persuaded me to travel in general compartment. Even if it was a new experience for me but I was feeling much more relaxed because I had a seat under my hips and that was fortune more than gold in that journey. My friend was also sitting exactly in front of me and listening to music. He seemed relaxed but for some reason I couldn't cope with him. Anyways, everything looked settled once the train moved and whenever it stopped on stations, there were waves of confusion and tremors of shrieks could be listened easily. I held on everything until a young woman started crying loudly. The young woman was sitting on the surface with a newly born child in her lap. She had been there from the start of the journey and had been saving her child every time a passer by crossed her. I was sitting a little far from her and there wasn't much place to exactly have a look what was happening with her. But as her crying voice raised levels as if someone were in a great pain, I couldn't resist and stood from my seat, made way out of nowhere and reached that lady and what I saw was really unimaginable. The young woman was holding a newly born (seemed like not more than 10 days) who was not showing any movement. And the mother who was in fact an uneducated village woman thought that the child had already passed away. Her husband who stood there was also lamenting and tears were falling from their eyes. Nonetheless noone knew what exactly they should do in such a situation. As soon as I could manage to approch the young woman, I said in a firm voice to her husband, "How about celebrating this festival without your kid? How could you even do that?' He remained still and didn't reply anything to me. Then realising that they are just innocent people so I asked them to calm down and told the young woman to first sit on the bench. Then I checked upon the kid and realised that it was just a case of fainting due to dehydration and the young woman was thinking that the kid had died because someone from the crowd had put his leg on her baby. I instructed her to give the baby a rubbing on its back and then drop some water into its tiny mouth. After 2 or 3 minutes, the baby came alive, (as the mother wasn't ready to acknowledge that it was dehydration not the foot of anyone). She alongwith her husband became happy and for a few hours I was treated like a celebrity in that overly crowded compartment.
What an epic story!
I’m sure you will collect more such stories during your upcoming world trip
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