Intertextuality

It isn’t everyday when you get to be a good Samaritan. Today was one of those rare days.

I was on my way to work when I reached the auto stand to find no autos were available. I flagged down a passing auto and gave him the directions. We had gone about five hundred metres when a cellphone started ringing. He was looking at me and I was wondering why he was not picking up the phone. I told him that his phone was ringing. He mentioned it was not the usual phone that he was carrying, so he didn’t notice it ringing. By this time, we had reached a busy signal and he was fumbling between taking the call and guiding the auto through heavy traffic. I asked him to park the auto and take the call.

It was when he parked that I noticed a kind of panic in his eyes and I listened to his conversation on the phone. He mentioned that it was his wife who was at the hospital for childbirth and that the birth was going to be a breech birth. By this time, he really started getting panicky and tears started rolling down his cheeks. I really started listening into his conversation. It looked like the doctor said that it is going to be a difficult birth and going for a caesarian birth was the only option. It seemed that only one life could be saved. By this time, I was wondering if this guy’s wife is in labour, what the heck was he doing driving around the city in an auto.

When he had finished the phone call, I asked him if there were any complications. It was then his story unfolded. It seems that he and his wife had eloped to get married and this was their first child. Both families had washed away their hands off the couple. He had been driving the auto since last evening hoping to meet the medical expenses. He mentioned that the hospital was hesitant in performing the operation without any payment. By then, I had decided to give him the 500 rupees I had. But when I asked him how much he required, he mentioned he had 3000 and he still needed 5000 for the operation. Somehow his plight touched me. I asked him to head to any nearby ATM and told him that I will give him that money.

We stopped at an ATM and soon we had reached my workplace. I handed him 6000 rupees and asked him to head to the hospital first and look after his wife. He asked for my mobile number, I handed him my visiting card and told him all would be fine and I headed to work.

Around afternoon, he called me and said that his wife had delivered a girl child and both mother and child were fine. I really felt happy for something I did on an impulse today.

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