The Rickshaw Driver

‘United we stand, Divided we fall’. It’s a line that we have been hearing for ages. I saw that first hand in my recent trip to Bengaluru.

As we got into a rick at BTM Layout to go to Race Course, I braced myself for an uncomfortable ride in the Bengaluru traffic and pollution. Add to it that the rick driver was a budding schumacher, made matters really worse for the bad back that I was carrying.

Somewhere in the middle of the journey, I saw another rick had broken down and the driver was pushing it hoping to find a garage. The Schumacher guy (my rick driver) stopped and asked the other driver about his problem. After a few exchanges in Kannada, he placed his rick at a strategic angle and put his left leg out on the back of the broken down rick. He then pushed that rick for almost 20 minutes through the horrific and unrelenting Bengaluru traffic. He risked his leg (and more) to help another driver whom he did not even know. He was at a risk of losing his leg due to uneven road, bumps, sudden brakes, people crossing and the two wheelers snaking through the traffic. Irrespective, he kept pushing. He kept pushing so that the other guy could reach somewhere near the garage, get his rick fixed and move on to earn his livelihood.

This was yet another simple incident that strengthened my belief in the inherent goodness within people. Probably we should stop building walls and start building bridges.

P.S - Just to put perspective - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bizZeYvH3VI (this is not videoed by me)