I was walking past the iconic Asiatic Library near the Horniman Circle. It was another bright sunny day. Dozens of people were hanging out on the stairs of the Library; some of them posing and clicking pictures. However, the hustle and bustle on the pavement was missing as it was a holiday.
My smart phone faithfully kept displaying two unsolicited pieces of information – the temperature was 38 degrees Celsius and that it felt like forty two. Indeed the heat was higher than usual in South Mumbai even for a hot summer.
Just then I saw something curious on the other side of the road along the garden. An old man was sitting there leaning against a tree. His legs stretched out and hands lay lifeless alongside. His head drooped to the front.
I crossed the road intuitively to go near him. Perhaps the old man needed some help.
As I drew closer, I saw him as a frail old man almost lifeless. Neatly clothed in trousers and a full-sleeve shirt, as if for a formal occasion, how could he sit there on the dusty roadside? The wrinkles on the face could not hide his sophisticated looks. He seemed to be a rich person. He must have been a handsome well-built man in his youth.
I tried making some noise to wake him up. He sat lifeless making me fear that he was dead! I did not want to get into complications with the police if the old man was dead already and I was found near him as a stranger taking avoidable interest in his body. A rich man’s death on the roadside is not the same as that of the poor – one would raise suspicion of crime while the other, emotions against hunger and apathy.
But suddenly he opened his eyes and looked at me. He murmured something, loud enough for me to take notice. He was perhaps asking me to help him stand up.
I rushed closer to him and enquired whether he was fine. The old man ignored my anxiety and asked if there was high tide in the sea. I could not exactly follow what he was saying. I told him, the Marine Drive was few kilometres away if he wanted to go closer to the ocean front. He appeared incoherent in his words but was definitely not going to die at that moment. I had a sense of relief.
I genuinely wanted to help and not abandon him high and dry. I was trying to enquire whether he wanted help to go home, but the old man was not responding.
Suddenly he was trying to raise his hands perhaps seeking assistance. I was preparing to lean and lift his hands when a car stopped by and the chauffer came rushing. He rudely pushed me aside and effortlessly gathered the old man in his able arms and made him stand on his feet. The old man started walking at a slow pace towards the car with his right hand on the chauffer’s shoulders.
He still looked at me trying to say something. I went closer. He thanked me for being nice.
The chauffer helped him sit in the car. Before getting into the car himself, the chauffer looked at me and said – mind your own business.
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Manoranjan Mishra 