[swarnava.m]

2 incidents that I can write about here.

1. This was probably around 2 years back. It was a Saturday, and I was out in the city on my scooter for customary weekend chores like going to the bank, etc. While coming back home at around 12 noon, I saw an aged lady asking for a lift. This was less than a km from my house. I stopped, and she looked very thankful just for stopping. She asked me where I was going. When I told her, she asked me to drop her just at the 4-roads near my house. While approaching the junction, I asked her where she was going. She said she wanted to go to Bank of Maharashtra, which was half a km ahead of where I live. I thought it's hardly a big deal for me, maybe an additional 5 mins. But it would save the old lady a lot of trouble, since she may have to wait for a bus to get there, or worse, walk. I told her that I would be dropping her to her destination. She seemed a little surprised, and very very thankful. When I dropped her, she blessed me so many times. And I, for one, find that when elderly people bless you, they are genuine and they mean it with all their heart. It was an extremely happy moment for me.

2. This was 2-3 months back. Again a Saturday, I was running errands for mom. She had sent me to a friend of hers to give her some delicacies that she had cooked at home. I was in the Captiva this time. It was drizzling.

While coming back, I could see a small boy, maybe aged around 10, about 100 metres ahead, trying to get a lift from 2-wheelers passing by. However, nobody was stopping. I slowed down when I came near him, thinking that I would stop if he flagged me down. However, he did not even lift his hand on seeing the car. I thought seeing the SUV he had no hopes that it would stop. So, I drove past.

But going ahead, I kinda felt bad for not stopping on my own, and pulled over to the left. Then I leaned out of the window, and gestured to him to come to the car. He walked over reluctantly, and I asked him where he wanted to go. He told me the place, which was a little over 1 km ahead of my house. I asked him to get in.

While driving, I noticed that he was in a school uniform, and asked him whether he was walking back home from school. He said that he walked everyday, but since it was drizzling today, he wanted a lift. A point to mention here. The spot I picked him up from, was around 3 km from the school. This means he walks almost 5 km one way, twice a day, everyday. I felt really bad for him.

When we approached the junction near his house, he asked me to drop him there. I asked him how much further it was. He said it was 2 mins to walk. I insisted that I drop him home. He was hesitant, but agreed. I think he was conscious about what his folks might think if they saw him getting out of a big car.

On reaching the place, he got off the car, mumbled a thanks, and ran straight off. I saw that the house was one of those what we call "jhopdis", standing among many others, in a field with wild vegetation around. Judging by the looks of the locality, it probably housed daily wage laborers and the kind.

I felt really sad for this boy who was taking all these hardships year after year, in pursuit of just basic education. At the same time, I felt extremely happy about having done someone a good turn, and wished that he and his family may see better times in life.

[chevelle]

This is about a lift my and my friends got from a stranger, in a strange country(not any longer) at a strange time.

Me and my 2 friends came to USA in 2007. It was just a couple of days and we were staying in an apartment close to our University. Since we didn't have any transportation, we had to walk 2 miles one way to get groceries.

While we were getting to know each other, one of the guy casually said that its his birthday the next day. We were like, this calls for celebration and so at 10.30 pm we started walking towards Safeway (a grocery store) to get cakes and other stuff. While going it was fun and fast.

While returning, we had 2 big cakes, 4 (2-liter bottles of coke and pepsi) and chips and stuff. We could barely walk and were discussing how will we reach before 12 am as we had invited other friends too for celebration.

So we were walking on the pavement when a car pulls up and a lady rolls down window and says - 'Good God, where you guys going with this much stuff'. I told the lady that we are going to our apt and that its like 1.5 miles further ahead. The lady said she and her husband were observing for sometime how we are struggling with all this stuff in hand so they decided to give us a ride home. We were very thankful and gladly got in without a second thought.

Along the way we chatted and it was very nice talking to them. Deep down we had a feeling of what this strangers were capable of in a strange country. Our fears were wiped away when they pulled up in front of our apts and we got out. We thanked them profusely and invited for birthday celebration. They declined saying they had some things to take care of and they were on their way. This shows that humanity still exist in the world.

Fast forward to 2010 and i graduated, had a car but still stayed in the apts near to university.

Many times while returning from work, i would see students(from all over the world) struggle to walk with grocery bags. This reminded me of my old days and so I would give them lift by asking where they lived. 90% of them stayed in same apts as mine so I would just ask them to get in and ride them home. The others would be a couple of blocks ahead which i don't mind dropping them off and coming back. I made many friends while doing this and we still hang out a lot.

The happy, thankful faces would make my stressful day much much better.

[SANSI]

Originally Posted by swarnava.m

2 incidents that I can write about here.
I felt really sad for this boy who was taking all these hardships year after year, in pursuit of just basic education. At the same time, I felt extremely happy about having done someone a good turn, and wished that he and his family may see better times in life.

That's of too good in you.

[motomaverick]

This was about a year back. We had just purchased the Manza and I had gone for a morning drive on the new car as well as complete my 1000 kms. I went up to Atibele where under a flyover I took a u-turn to head back home. Just at the Atibele bus stand there were police barricades and one of them stopped me. I thought routine checks but actually he was flagging me down to ask for a lift for his colleauge, i readily agreed as it was getting boring. We had a nice chat in his broken Hindi and my broken Kannada. He seemed so happy that he urged me to take the BETL and I didn't even had to pay the toll as he just informed the toll attended that this car is on police duty

[EdgedNTaken]

This happened about 6 months ago in Pune. I was waiting for my take-away meal outside a restaurant. It was about 9.45 pm. I noticed an old couple walk out of the same restaurant, trying to hail an auto-rickshaw, to get home. Now auto-drivers in Pune (or for that matter anywhere) are quite notorious for refusing to ply, indiscriminately. This old couple was having a really tough time getting an auto for almost 15 minutes with every auto driver turning them down. Just then, my take-away meal was ready. I swiftly went over to my car, and rolled down the windows and requested them to get in so that I could drop them. They seemed a little surprised first, and politely refused. But when I insisted, they got in. Turned out, they stayed about 3 kilometers away, and although it was not exactly on the way to my house, I had made up my mind to drop them to their destination regardless. I also realized on talking to them that it was the Mister's birthday that day and they were returning from an evening at the movies and dinner. They thanked me profusely for this good deed and I still feel a million bucks when I recollect what I did.

[SJM1214]

Usually, I avoid giving the lift to unknown persons.

However, I am ok with the officials of toll booth who asks for lift at the toll plaza. During morning hours, these officials are always there at toll plaza asking lift till next toll plaza. The first benefit of giving the lift to these officials is they will waive off your toll charges. Moreover, it's always fun to talk with these officials. They always share some inside information about toll plaza, NHAI, road, and accidents.

Here is a nice thread by SDP on giving a lift to a highway Patrol person.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/drive-...ol-person.html

I always give the lift to locals and Military Officials, when I am travelling in The Himalayas. It gives a chance to have a glimpse of their life in the mountains.

Here are some extracts from my Ladakh travelogue.
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travel...uster-awd.html

One Army Jawan approached us and asked...
“Gujarat se ho?”(Are you guys from Gujarat?) He was from Rajasthan.

He asked for a ride to Leh. We said yes …Anything for Army.

He told us that he was posted at Khardung la Top from last 5 months and this was his first trip down to Leh. Tough life!!

& Why was he going down?
Some of their Colonel (Commanding Officer) were visiting them, & he was travelling 56 KM down to Leh town to bring some Pastry for him!

We clicked some photographs with him, he requested us not to post those photographs on Social Media!

I asked...
what after that?... What do you guys do during winter?

One of them said...
“tin month ke bad agali season suru hogi, uski wait karenge”.(Next Season will start after three months, we"ll wait for that)

Three more months? How...?
"Leh tourist Season is May to September which is after 7 months."

He said...
“ nai nai Saab, Mai Chadar ki bat kar raha hu, Chadar trek January se chalu hoga” (No, no Sir. I am talking about Chadar trek season, It"ll start from January.)

All of them were working as guides of Chadar Trek on frozen Zanskar River.

A local guy came to us and asked for lift till Leh.

Why not!
We started for Leh. We tried to talk to that guy about Life in Leh. As per him, taxi & hotel owners are at the top of Leh‘s socio-economical hierarchy. Car loans for commercial (tourism) purpose are very cheap and easy for locals (maybe perks of 370 Article in J& K).

He told us...
“shayad aap ke vaha youth ko doctor ya engineer banana hoga, yaha leh mai sab ko bhahot sari Innova leni hai and driver banna hai”(May be in your region young guys want to become doctors or engineers but in Leh, they want to buy a lot of Innovas.)

We all laughed at his statement. Maybe it's true. We all know that taxi rates are highest in this region.

[prithm]

I stopped giving lift recently. Earlier, I used to give lift to school kids, but given the current scenario of false allegations, feeble law enforcement and investigation prowess of authorities, I chose to not be part of it.

Yes, it does make me feel bad to see school kids walking alone in mid noon sun with such large school bag on their back or families standing in desolated highway waiting for auto or bus, women with infants or kids etc. Everything in my heart says to stop and give them a ride to their destination, but after hearing few cases where the good intention was turned to allegations of sinister plot, I have decided to just turn a blind eye.

Earlier I used to get blessings from elderly, women saying "Thank you Brother.", kids asking me if I commute at same time everyday so that they can wait for me. Used to lighten the heart after a tough day in office, but now heart has hardened itself.

[Hells Bells]

This happened in 2011 or 2012, I believe. I was headed out on Channasandra Main road towards Hope Farm junction after showing my BIL some of the housing projects in that area. Just before the HopeFarm junction, I saw this blind guy waving for buses and after having passed him a good 25 meters, I decided to stop. I slowly backed up while keeping to the shoulder of the road and stopped next to him. I asked him where was he headed and he mentioned he is going to the Sai Baba Ashram (a right from junction). While I was headed back towards Old Airport Rd, I felt appalled at how helpless handicapped folks feel when it even comes to commuting using public transport.

I asked him to hop in and drove over to the Ashram. Dropped the guy in front of the ashram and then headed out for my destination. I feel bad every single time I see visually impaired folks struggling to make their way in the chaos of our traffic where individuals do not give two hoots. I try doing my bit but feel we can be more humane in such situations.

[DriverR]

As a student, when i had a bike I was open to giving lifts to people who seemed to need it, such as school kids or elderly people. Now days I do not give lifts as I guess i am growing more cynical about today's society. Two incidents strand out for me.

1. When i was studying in Bangalore over 2 decades back, I had a bike. Once I had stayed over at a friend's place and was going back to my hostel early in the morning , around 7am. Suddenly i see a cop motioning me to stop. I thought, Oh man, i am caught now (since i was not wearing a helmet). I stopped next to the cop and he asked if i could give him a lift to MG road. I asked him to hop on, but in the back of my mind i was thinking he is going to take me to the police station. At the MG Road signal, he asked me to stop and got down thanked me. Before he left, he said, next time please wear helmet and drive. I blurted out an apology and said i would do so and went off. (I was young and stupid then, but I did start wearing helmet regularly.)

2. This happened about 10 years back in Hyderabad. i was returning home in my car from my then-girlfriend/now-wife's place at night. It was monsoon season and raining heavily. I was crossing Abids around 11pm. The roads were empty. Suddenly i see a man with an umbrella gesturing for a lift. As I get closer i see it is an elderly gentleman. I had stopped giving lifts but seeing this man in the rain, i felt i could not leave him especially when there was no other vehicles around. I stopped and asked him where he wanted to go, and his destination was a little down the road, along my route. So i asked him to get in and he happily got in. We had a some small talk and i dropped him off at a point close to his destination and went on my way. While i may not do something like that again, but it felt good to help someone who needed a lift at a difficult time.
(Note: I just realized i had referred to the second incident in a recent post and gave a wrong time (typo) in that post.)