"Sir, Do You know Malayalam??"

After a day of work, I was very tired. As usual I kept the earphones of my iPod and started walking back to my house. The player setting was in random. The songs were coming randomly. I started feeling very happy as all the songs that came up were my favorites.


I was walking at a brisk pace through the crowds in front of travel agency when an old, looking, weak, person came in front of me and asked “Do you know Malayalam”. I stopped for a moment and told him that I don’t know Malayalam. I was a bit surprised, as generally the question should have been “aapko hindi maalum hai sir”. But this was different. I started moving forward. Then when I turned back, I saw him going to other people standing there and asking the same. I felt like he is in a big trouble and he wanted help. His face reflected that. It made me to walk back and I asked him of what he wanted.
Then it was a story of suffering that I could hear from him. It was that he had come to Bangalore looking for a job. He is the only person to support his family. But unfortunately, he couldn’t find any job here. He wanted to return to his native and he wanted some money to buy ticket.


That moment, my brother’s story went through my mind. He had lost his purse while he was traveling from his college to house. He didn’t have a single penny in his hand. So he had to ask or literally beg from others to get some money to reach the house. The only thought that I had was if it was my brother or my father in his place and I was a stranger to him, then what would I expect myself to do. So he asked me two hundred rupees. I initially thought why 200. Then he told that he already has 200 and if he includes this, he will have the correct money for the tickets. So I thought there need not be any second thought if you are helping someone and I gave it to him.


Is the story over? No. Not yet.
On the way back to my home, I was getting mixed feelings. Whether I have done something good or whether I was cheated? I called my parents and they told me that I am cheated and consoled me telling that it’s just first time and it was because of my ignorance. But the doubt was still in my mind. I told about the same to my friends and even they told me give Rs 20 maximum. Never more than that. Still I was confused.


It took one complete day for my mind to be clear. It was next day when I went with one of my friend for shopping when I found the same person walking there. I don’t know why he did not recognize me, but he came to me itself asking the same old question “Do you know Malayalam”. That’s it. It was the end of the story. My reply to him, something of least importance but the significance of this incident, very huge.


A normal person who has the mind to help others during their bad times, after such an incident, would refrain from that. A person who really deserves help would be left without any, due to such cheat people. A country which was the abode of people like Satyavadi Harischandra, Mahatma Gandhi etc is now a place where it is difficult to believe even a single person. I have no idea why people rely on lies to make money. A person, in today’s world can earn his living by telling truth and doing genuine things itself, may be he can’t have a luxurious life. Something that I always think is what these people get after cheating others, probably, money to buy a bottle of alcohol. But during their final stages of life, they will regret for what they have done.


So for any deed we do we should think when we are in our final stage of life, and we retrospect, we should not feel we have done something wrong. As that would be a time when we will realize that there will not be a second chance in life.