What A Day?
Chelladurai
©
Copyright 2018 by Chelladurai
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“Service
to mankind is service to God” – Swami Vivekananda
I
was on an official trip in bus and as usual most of the passengers
were glued to their smart phones. I got a window seat and was sitting
idly. I thought the bus ride will be boring with no one talking and
only surfing the web in their smart phones. I was thinking that
people now have stopped interacting and became addicts of the smart
phone. This is a change in the life style of the present generation.
I came to the conclusion that it is better not to talk with strangers
as they might be thieves and talking to them could end me in trouble.
I also started wearing the head sets and took my smart phone.
In
one of the bus stop, a man aged about 45 years entered the bus. He
sat down and said “What a day”. I was curious to know his
story and started the conversation. His voice was sturdy and audible
to the entire passengers in the bus. He had a gulp of water and
started to narrate his experiences on that day.
He
said that he was a sales man and travels regularly. He started the
day with sales kit riding his bike. On the way, he saw a live
accident. A car and a truck had collided head on. The car was thrown
away from the road and the truck came down with its goods. The entire
road became messy. He quickly informed the ambulance service about
the accident and the spot. He checked the broken car. There was a
family of four with two kids. All were lying unconscious with blood.
He took a snapshot of the number plate of the broken car. Crowd
gathered and ambulance came. They retrieved the accident victims and
rushed to the hospital. Police cleared the traffic after their
formalities.
He
took his bike and starts in his way back to his routine job. He had
been in the spot and was eager to know the condition of the accident
victims. His mind was restless after seeing the gory accident and
decided to go to the hospital to check on the accident victims. He
went to the hospital and enquired with the hospital personnel about
the incident. They inform that all members were admitted in ICU and
were in critical state. The hospital personnel needed to inform their
relatives but were unable to get any personal details.
He
remembered that he had taken a snapshot of the car number. He decided
to track the address with the car number. He had uploaded the same in
the social media requesting for help. Then he returns back to finish
his sales target for the day. His company called him for a meeting
and he was now traveling to the headquarters of the company in the
bus narrating his weird experiences of the day. His day was hectic
and still his traveling has not ended. The sales man calls the
hospital personnel from the bus to check on the status of the
accident victims and gets relieved on hearing that they are all out
of danger.
Now
the entire passengers in the bus were hearing the story keeping their
smart phones apart. All enquired him to share the snapshot of the car
number plate and the post in the social media. He did the same at
once. All started sharing the post. One of the passengers in the bus
had a contact with the transport department. He was able to track
down the address of the car based on the number plate. Another
passenger had a friend living near the address of the accident
victims. She called her friend and informed about the accident. Her
friend knows the family for years and informed their relatives about
the accident. Finally, their relations rush to the hospital to help
the family members.
I
was witnessing this entire incident in the bus. I was really
astonished to see the power of some people with good minds joining
together. I could feel the positive energy flowing in the bus. There
are still people with helping tendency. My notion of people has
completely changed now. The bus was full of passengers interacting
and enquiring about the accident. All the passengers praised the
sales man for his social responsibility and greeted him. Everyone
clapped for the social service of the sales man. He became a hero in
the bus.
There
was a journalist traveling in the bus and took a snapshot of the
sales person. He fixed an appointment with him and would send his
experience to get a social responsibility award from a popular TV
channel. The sales man shared his accident experiences in the
television channel in one of the programs. The journalist asked him
“What urged you to stop and do such social service?” He
replied that “It gave me mind satisfaction and I felt happy on
doing it”. After the interview, he became a celebrity in the
society. He also received an award for his social responsibility from
the channel. Now, he is doing social service full time with his own
ambulance to rescue accident victims. He became an inspiration and a
role model for others. The bus ride has changed his life altogether.
A
lot of people’s lives change on interacting and sharing their
experiences but most of us have become very reserved and smart phone
addicts that we avoid talking with strangers. Most of us including me
were of the opinion that talking to strangers will end us in trouble.
This incident has changed everything altogether. We have to
experience strange and interesting things in the society. Experience
is the best teacher of life and it teaches us to separate good and
bad. Life is full of new experiences and after this incident, my
thoughts about the society and life changed altogether. I stopped
thinking negatively that aversion must be shown to all strangers and
started to think positively. This bus ride taught me this lesson and
I will cherish this experience for my entire life. I started
interacting with people whenever I had a chance and stopped sticking
with my smart phone all the time. Yes, I started to live in the real
world coming out of the smart phone virtual world from that day
onwards. I said to my self “What a day?”
I have 11
years writing
experience
including
two
years academic
experience
teaching
Business School (MBA) students and nine
years Industry experience.
I have a passion for competitive exams. I have qualified TNPCEE,
TANCET,
NET, IBPS, SSC
CGLE and
UPSC Civil Services Prelims exams.
I
received a National
award
for my Article
“Information Technology and India” published in
Competition
Success
Review Magazine, October
2016 issue. I was announced winner
twice at Civil
Services
India Magazine, January
and February 2017 issue. I received greetings and recognition from
Prime Minister Office (PMO) for my Blog “Life
of a poor and sincere Government Job aspirant”
on 19th
October 2017
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