A Lift In Time

This happened last year when my daughter had to write her entrance test at a college near Chrompet in Chennai. She was in her 12^th standard and was writing her entrance test to gat a seat into VIT University.She being the eldest of our two children and as such her being the first such entrance test, my wife and myself accompanied her to the venue. We went to the venue by our Car a Maruti 800.

The test was to be over by 1.30 pm. I was waiting in the car and my wife was having a chat with some of the parents waiting for their wards  to come out after the test. It was around 1.15 pm one of the girls came out of the hall and she directly went to her mother. She sat with her mother and I could see something was amiss. There was some uncomfortable ness the girl was in. I called my wife and asked to talk to her mother.

It transpired that they were coming from Ambattur area which is some 6 k m away from the place where we were staying. The girl was having intense pain in the stomach. The mother told my wife to watch the girl so that she could get an auto rickshaw for their travel back home. I knew that they would not be able to get an auto as there was huge crowd there and it would take at least 30 minutes for them to get the auto.

By this time my daughter had also finished her test and had come out of the hall. I put forward one suggestion that we would give a lift to the mother and girl till our house and my wife and daughter readily agreed.

So , we gave a lift to them till where we were staying and where her father a doctor by profession was waiting with their car. Her father was not able to accompany them because of his pre-occupation. The girl was still in pain.

They went home as  we also went to our home immensely satisfied that we had helped at least one person who was in need of help. When the result came , we understood that the girl was successful in getting a seat in the VIT university, even though she did not join that. This we understood by the phone call we received from them.

The incident gave my family and me a great deal of inner fullness. We were able to help them even when they did not ask for it. It was voluntary, which gave us immense satisfaction and immense joy. Even now we get calls from the family expressing their gratefulness for the timely help rendered by us.

P Balachandra Bhat

State Bank of  India

Chennai LHO