The Most Saddening Incident of My Life
And it still makes me feel unsettled at times
Every once in a while, we witness something which deeply touches our soul. We see it, empathize, and then move on. It’s human nature to forget about things after a while.
But sometimes, it is hard to let it go. It keeps coming back in our memories often which makes us feel unsettled at times. This article is a narration of one such experience of mine.
This happened when I was studying in an Indian university called “IIT Kharagpur”. I had gone home for vacations and was returning from home to the university campus.
The campus was far from the station and transportation like taxis, rickshaws were needed to reach the campus. Generally, the cost of a taxi would be almost double that of a rickshaw.
I was looking for the conveyance at the station. A rickshaw puller came to me and insisted me to take a ride. So, I decided to take a rickshaw instead of a taxi as I wanted to save some money.
Just to give you an idea, the rickshaw puller resembled the man shown in the picture below. His bones were visible, and he was very skinny.
It was very hot and humid. The sun was about to set.
He started but he seemed to be already worn out as the day must have been exhausting for him. Soon, a bridge came on the way back to the campus.
While climbing up the bridge, he was sweating a lot and his body was at unease. All of a sudden, I noticed a cut on his skinny leg.
A small amount of blood was coming out and he without caring about it, was putting all his efforts to take me to my destination.
That moment hit me hard and made me realize that life can be so hard for some people. Words can’t do justice to what it was like at that instant.
I was getting mad at myself. I was in a dilemma whether I should cancel the trip or go on.
On one hand, I was trying to convince myself that because of this trip, he would get some money and afford some food. On the other hand, I was cursing myself that he got that wound because of me.
And then I decided to get off the rickshaw when he was pulling it on the bridge and after that, I again got on and he continued to take me to the campus.
Some of you might say, why I continued. It was hard to find any other conveyance and my mind was not able to think of an alternative, as I was tired too, and the campus was still far. I still don’t know whether that was right or wrong.
After that, I chose never to take a rickshaw. I still blame myself whenever that image of him sweating and bleeding comes into my mind.
Whenever I have difficult situations to deal with in my life, this instance serves me as a reminder that at least it is not that hard as of some others.
