“Bye Kishore, have a nice journey”
The deafening silence was broken by screeching halt of the train and with these words I bid adieu to one of my colleagues who was leaving for home. Even though it was pretty late in the night, I hoped to get a taxi. The platform was almost empty except for the tea & snack vendors and railway employees. Whatever passengers were there, most of them were asleep on benches or on the floor. I reached the exit gate and enquired for a taxi. To my utter surprise, tens of taxi-wallas surfaced out of absolutely no-where and started jostling to get a deal. One of them agreed, albeit at an exorbitant price but having no choice, I too accepted.
The cabbie was in his late 30’s, medium built, wheatish complexion and slight grey hair. To break the monotony of journey, I tried asking him questions of generic nature, in an effort to strike a conversation but he seemed reluctant and his responses were restricted to mono-syllables. Having tried in vain, now I just lowered the glasses and allowed the nice cool breeze to gush through the windows and I really don’t know when I fell asleep.
“Sir, uthiye..ghar aa gaya” I heard the driver imploring.
Nothing is more irritating in life than somebody waking you up from a sound sleep. Nevertheless I paid him, unlocked the main entrance and went straight to bedroom and dozed off. Perhaps it was around 10 or 11 when I got up next morning. Still half asleep, I started looking for my mobile to call home. Completely oblivious to the fact that the mobile alarm of 7 am also hadn’t rung in morning, worried looks started crossing my face. After desperately searching it in my room for half an hour, I called a few friends to narrate the sad story. All hopes lost, my doubts immediately went to the taxi driver as I had fallen asleep in taxi last night and I started cursing him. Friends were also frantically trying to locate it when suddenly one of them came running towards me.
“mil gaya”,
“kaha?”, I enquired in disbelief. Rather than telling, he dialed a number and handed over his cell phone.
“hello, hello…” I said.
“hello, sir me taxi driver…kal raat aap gaadi me mobile bhool gaye the” the voice at the other end uttered feebly.
I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I thanked the taxi driver many times. He also said that he will deliver the phone to my address since he had to make a trip again to my area in evening. As promised, the driver, not only delivered the mobile phone, but also refused to accept anything as a token of appreciation from me.
Ofcourse, I was happy for the mobile, but what made me happier was the sincerity and honesty of that man, who could have easily kept the cell phone. Such incidents, if not rare, certainly occur very infrequently these days. But I must admit that this experience undoubtedly cemented my belief that honesty still lives despite all the negativity and cynicism of our times.
