Compassion knows no religion

I don’t know how I did not write about this earlier. Or maybe my deeply embedded emotions were waiting for the apt trigger to show. Two years back, in the month of August it was a rainy day. Before living in this city of dreams, I always dreamt to live it’s so talked about rains. But when I actually experienced, my feeling were mixed of goods and bads. That day it recorded record downpour at least for the year. We had just shifted to Mumbai, and it was our first rains here. My husband Avishek was out of country on an official tour. I was in office, but management called it for the day, fearing gruesome floods. I lived in Kanjurmarg then, and my office was in Vikhroli. People who are aware of the place, they will appreciate the nearness between the two. But unfortunately it was not walkable, at least in that day of torrential rainfall.

The Sky was as if pouring incessantly to quench the never dying thirst of the greedy. City life was crippled completely. The so called life line of Mumbai, Locals had come to a grinding halt due to water on the tracks. The roads were jammed and water logging everywhere. I stood near my office drenched even with an umbrella, trying to get a means to commute. Cabs, Autos fled by, none would stop just like the rains. Suddenly the otherwise friendly city, turned insensitive. I stood for hours and it was nearing darkness. I thought I would walk, but seeing the water logging and road conditions I dreaded to start off.

Suddenly an auto stopped in front. By then my hands were tired gesturing them to stop. I evidently looked in despair. “Where do you want to go?” asked a man in his late twenties. When I told him my address, he hesitated for a minute or two but eventually said yes. When I got in, I saw a Burkha clad girl already seated inside. Her face was bare, she smiled at me. The guy sped past the water clogged city and the girl talked to me. They were a couple, going to visit the guy’s mother. On seeing my sad state they decided to give me a lift. But my house was not in their way, yet they decided not to leave me alone in the heart of the drenching city. “This city has seen floods madam, it is not safe to be outside at this hour” said the girl. I paid them more than the normal fare, which they took with lot of hesitation.

They sped past leaving me with an answer. With the growing intolerance of one Religion for the other, I always wondered whether goodness and compassion has anything to do with that. But now I know Compassion knows no religion.