Ram went to visit his aunt and family in Pune. The next day he stepped out of the house in home clothes - a pajama and a vest (banian) to accompany his aunt and others in the family to a waiting taxi. Ram's aunt and family was taking the taxi to Pune railway station to board a train for Mumbai. Aunt had left some food for him to eat and had told him to handover the keys to the neighbour when he left. When Ram came back upstairs he found the door closed! The keys were inside! the other set of keys were with his aunt. Ram's thoughts started racing what should he do now? He ran downstairs only to find the taxi had sped away. Those were the "non cell phone" days so he could not contact them. He went to the gardener Dhondu asking him for some money to go to the railway station. dhondu took his own time and slowly removed a 20 Rs. note. Ram quickly grabbed the note and went running outside barefoot and got into an auto rickshaw and instructed the driver to take him to the railway station.The next you know Ram found he was in front of a clothes store. The driver thought Ram needed clothes first. Ram pleaded with the driver that he did not want clothes but wanted to go to the railway station as it is - in pajama and vest, barefoot! Finally the auto rickshaw driver got a sense of the situation he took Ram to the railway station. Ram remembered the seat numbers mentioned by his aunt during a chat previous evening. Once the railway station was reached the good auto rickshaw driver told Ram to go in to the station and meet his family before they left for Mumbai. Ram ran into the station on the platform, the train had left the station only to stop for some reason. Ram got to the compartment where his aunt was sitting. From the window he was given the house keys and some money. The train started immediately and Ram came back thanking god for everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment