It was Friday morning of 17th
October 2014 in the capital of India.
I was there since Tuesday that week for a few business meetings and to
visit Smart Cards Expo, a three-day
event at Pragati Maidan from 15th to 17th October. The exhibition is over a decade old and brings
together various stack holders of the Smart Cards players in the Indian
market. It was the 3rd day
into the show and I did not have much left to get out of the show. So, I decided to catch up with Ajay; a former
business associate, now a close friend of mine.
I was at a hotel in Rajendra place and had my meeting scheduled with
Ajay at noon in Nehru place. Despite
having plenty of time before I could take my return flight AI 540 to Chennai at
20.55hrs, I had to return to my hotel in time to check-out by 2.00pm. Two
hour was the maximum time extension that I could charm the hotel receptionist into,
to hold the room free of charge.
Having spent a long night on GoToMeeting with my colleagues
in the US to get a demo up and running, I was up relatively late that morning. The sleep was a couple of hours short of my
usual sever hour sleep quota. I had a
quick breakfast of fresh fruits, fruit juice, probiotic milk, mango yogurt and
an egg, to detox the body of alcohol and meaty sides that I had consumed
previous night, over a meeting with one of the friends who works for competition. During breakfast, I contemplated on the fastest
way to get to Nehru Place in time for my noon meeting. I decided to take the very popular and
efficient Delhi Metro. A steward in the hotel had commented that the
Delhi Metro has shrunk the size of the Delhi, enabling commuters to travel quickly
from one end of the city to another in the often congested and slow moving road
traffics of Delhi.
At 10.55am I walked down from my room 321 of Jaypee Siddharth (one of Delhi’s oldest
hotel) to the Rajendra Place metro, which was hardly 500meters away. I was trying to walk in the shadows of the
metro line so I could avoid perspiration due to the warm sunshine of October, to
reach the meeting fresh. Just as I
reached the flight of stairs that lead to the metro station, I saw an old elderly and homeless couple,
probably in their mid-70s, fishing something out of their rags. I saw the man pull out a packet of food and
couple opened the packet very carefully not to spill any food, probably given
by a kind hearted human. I slowed down,
and began to observe this couple. They
were fragile and very weak. They were in
torn clothes, which will not help keep them warm in the cold nights of Delhi. Initially, I thought I should buy them some
warm food from a roadside stall that had been preparing some Pav Bhaji. But then, I thought I should give them a 100
rupee note and let them decide what they wanted to do with it. May be they
could buy a couple of meals, or purchase something more needed. While this thought was running in me, I
realised that I was already on the escalator that was moving steadily up
towards the ticket counters on the first floor of the metro station. As the
escalator climbed higher, I had lost sight of the couple and unfortunately of
the little help that I wanted to offer to the couple. The feeling that I would be late for my meeting
took over the little noble thought that was born a few seconds ago.
At the counter, I bought a single journey metro token from Rajendra
Place to Nehru Place for Rs.20. Well, it
was actually Rs. 19 and the lady at
the counter never made an attempt to give me the Re. 1, and simple said “NEXT”.
I looked at the small blue plastic coin shaped token and said to myself that this
was a ”Mifare Ultralight” contactless
smart card token that was used for a single journey. After all, I came from this industry and knew
this since my company was involved in several metro transit projects around the
world. I searched for the sign “towards Noida City Center” ran up the stairs to
the platform to take the blue line
metro. I boarded a train that arrived in
less than 2 minutes. The train was
relatively less crowded and I had plenty of room to stand. The train would not take me to Nehru Place. I
had to change lines to reach my destination. I had an option to change at the very busy “Rajiv Chowk” underground metro station
and take a yellow line. But I would mean a change again at “Central
Secretariat” over to the Violet line. I
decided to skip myself of the trouble of two changes and the very crowded “Rajiv
Chowk”. “Mandi House” meant a single change and relatively less crowded
station as well. In about 15 minutes the
train was at the underground “Mandi House” station. After quickly going up and down a few flights
of stairs and escalators at the station, I conveniently changed to the Violet line and boarded an empty metro
towards “Badarpur”. It
was less than half an hour ride to Nehru Place on this metro. As I
kept watching people getting in and out of the train, it suddenly dawned on me
that I didn’t find time to hand over a meagre amount to an old and needy couple
I had seen at the Rajendran Place. Guilt
stuck me hard. I could not forgive
myself for being so selfish and walking away from the small opportunity GOD had
given me to share what he had blessed me with.
I felt very bitter and almost wanted to get off the metro and return to fulfil
this deed. But, I wanted to keep my
commitment for my meeting at 12.00 noon.
I reached the Nehru Place metro around 11.50am, 10 minutes before my
meeting. I quickly called Ajay to learn
that he still was about 5 to 10 minutes away by car. He complained about the slow moving traffic all
the way from his residence at Sarita Vihar.
To save time, we decided to meet at some coffee shop in “Epicuria Mall” at the metro
station. While waiting for Ajay, I took
the time to check-out electronic gadgets at the country’s first 24x7 electronic store “House of Technology” or
popularly called HOT. Gadgets always excited me, but today it did not
as guilt was eating me up. I kept thinking of the old couple.
Exactly at noon, Ajay was there and we exchanged pleasantries
and went down to the food court. We
looked for a nice place we could sit down for a coffee and discuss. We spotted the “Chatter House” and they had a nice sit out. We were their first customers that day, since
they open only at noon. We sat in the
open. It had a wonderful ambience and we
realised that beer probably tasted better than coffee at this joint. Since they
did not have stock of Indian beer, we went by the recommendation of the waiter
and ordered “Sol” Mexican beer. Yes, the beer tasted smoother and better with
a piece of lime in it. Since I had less than 85 minutes to go, we started our
discussion right away over Sol. We
discussed the most happening technologies in our Industry, different projects, opportunities
that existed, how we could collaborate with each other and so on. After about 40 minutes, the discussions
drifted from technology to social causes.
Both Ajay and I are actively involved and participate in several welfare
projects. I will leave the details for another day. Ironically, the topic that
came up was something that was close to both our hearts - “Elders”. Ajay was working
on a project for senior citizens and was seeking my opinion and
suggestions. While I was suggesting a
few modifications, he was keenly listening to me. I felt fake. Here I am talking big to Ajay on how care has
to be provided to elders, while hardly an hour ago I walked away from a needy
couple. I felt ashamed and I deeply
regretted my in-action.
Exactly at 1.30pm I excused myself, and rushed back to the
Metro station and stood in a queue at the ticket counter to take a train back
to Rajendra Place. I kept thinking of the elder couple was hoping to find them
when I return. I was in standing in the long queue to
purchase a travel token, while I noticed many patrons of Delhi metro walking
past the turnstiles using their Delhi
Metro plastic card. This contactless
plastic card had stored value and offered
discounts on tickets. Further, one didn’t have to stand in the long queues
and worry about tendering exact change.
Wow! I reached the counter in a
couple of minutes, and placed Rs. 20 and asked for Rajendra Place. The guy at the countered returned a Re.1 coin
and my plastic token for the journey. I
felt respect for him. I ran up the
stairs on platform 1 to take the train to Mandi House which arrived in less
than a minute. The train was getting
fuller at each stop now. In this rush, I
kept praying that I should find the old couple and hand them the Rs.100 that I now
desperately wanted to.
At Mandi House all travellers got off the train and seemed
like everyone ran towards the blue line.
I searched for the sign “towards Dwarka
Sector 21” and ran down to the platform.
I remembered that I had to check-out the room before 2.00pm or I would
have to pay additional charges. A train
arrived in no time and it was packed. I
tried entering it in vain. I stood back
and awaited the next train, which was there in a minute. This was no better. It was equally packed. I could not wait for another train. I took a plunge into one of the compartments
in which there seemed to some room to set foot in. I thought the door would close with one foot
of mine still outside. It did not
happen. I had both my feet grounded on the train. I quickly found my way to the
vestibule which was relatively less crowded.
It was 2.00pm when I boarded the train at Mandi House and now was
concerned about the additional charges that the hotel would levy for extension. As the train approached Karol Bagh, I began carefully making my way towards the exit of the
train so that I did not have a difficulty getting off at the next station. I took extra care not to stamp anyone with my
13 size formal black leather shoes that would definitely hurt. After a battle through the crowded
travellers, I was at the exit just as the train approached Rajendra Place. I checked the time on my mobile and it was
2.25pm. Holy cow! “Another half day
charges” I said to myself and dashed towards the station exit. I dropped the coin in the turnstiles. As they
opened doors for me, I walked as fast as I could to the hotel. As I reached the reception counter at the
hotel, I was profusely sweating. I
apologized and requested the hotel not burden me with an additional
charge. They readily accepted and gave me
time until 3.00pm. I ran to my room and
now that I had the luxury of another 20 minutes, I decided to have a quick
shower and change so I was presentable in the flight to my co-passengers.
While I began to enjoy the cold shower, I realized that I had
completed missed on something. How could
I forget something that bothered me so much all through my trip that morning? The old
couple at the Rajendra Place metro station!!
At times I wonder - What am I running after?
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