To appreciate someone is act of valour!!

I travel a lot, I already have mentioned that I travel a lot (if you've read my earlier blogs you would know that 😏). So some times I come across incidences worth mentioning... One of them is this one 👇

I was once travelling from Ghodadongri station to Agra cant. station, it was third or fourth professional year of my graduation, My home (at that time, in Sarni) was eighteen kilometres away from the nearest station, Ghodadongri, a small station with only three platforms, Papa had had to drop me to the station, sometimes I would travel through shared vehicle, but mostly Papa would see me off... I boarded the train in the late afternoon and by the end of the evening I reached Bhopal main station.

There an Old lady boarded the train with some attendant of her's and he made her seated on a berth in front of mine, she was very old and probably illiterate, the attendant made her sit there, adjusted her luggage and gave her, her ticket and left her on the train.

The Travelling Ticket Examiner arrived and he started checking our tickets and Id's and when he asked the old lady for her's, she showed him her ticket.

He was very furious at her because the ticket was online booked and it was not a confirmed ticket but waiting one.

She, on the other hand, had no idea what he's talking about, she said, "my son had these tickets booked for me" as I mentioned she appeared to be illiterate, for her, what ever that TTE said was saying, was gibberish and she kept on saying that, "my son is sending me home to Delhi and he has booked these tickets for me." And then all of a sudden she started crying, saying, "I told him (his son probably)  to come and see me off, I've never travelled alone, I can not read or understand all this and now what can I do??"

There was a Man sitting on the same berth, let's name him 'X' as we are going to refer to him a lot later, it was actually his reserved berth, he started talking to that old lady and asked her where she is from and what his son does in Bhopal and all the general questions, she stopped weeping after the conversation, she told him his son works in some company, he was very furious, he addressed everyone in the coach and said, "if he works in a company he definitely is educated, he should have known the ticket would not be valid if it's still wait listed" everyone nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile our train reached Vidhisha, next Railway Station.  And another gentleman boarded the train, let's refer to him as 'Y', he had reservation for the side lower berth in our coach only and he sat there adjusting his luggage and getting his ticket checked by the TTE.

The TTE  was done, checking everyone's tickets and he addressed the old lady once again, "Amma ji I won't have any problem with you on board but this is an AC coach and seats are limited and you have none reserved to yourself, if you can travel like this in here and other people have no objection (he looked around to refer us all) then you can travel and I won't charge you anything"

X was all of a sudden suggesting her the options she has, "Amma everyone is going to get to sleeping in some while and you would be left without a berth, why don't you simply slip to the next coach and find a seat in non AC coaches, they usually tend to have vacant seats". The suggestion was stupid, the lady was very old and she needed an attendant to carry her luggage and her to the train, how would she take her luggage with her and find for a vacant seat in another coach. The man who seemed all caring and concerned about her suddenly appeared to be wanting to get rid of her. She was again on the verge of crying but only said, "where would I go??"

At that point Y has been introduced with the matter in hand and he asked her about other details of her's like, how is she going to her home from Delhi station, to which she replied that somebody is going to come to fetch her there, Y then offered that he is going to Delhi too and his berth is reserved, the old lady can sit over there.

For the first time the old lady had an expression of relief on her face, I must say I too was relieved for her. But somehow the whole arrangement was not satisfying for X,  he kept saying to Y, "Why you are doing this, she is old and would need to lie down in the night, where would you sleep then? "

But Y was very casual about everything and did not reply at all but just through gesture of his hand said, it's okay! 

With time everyone settled with there sheets and blankets. The lady tried sitting upright for some time but then she started dozing off.

Y suggested her to lie down and after little hesitation she did.

While she was asleep comfortably on the berth of Y. X constantly kept saying," one should not be very gentle with these people... who knows what kind of person she is... I can not be that generous... I need my sleep.... I can not carry her burden"

Well I did not come forward either to help the old lady but what best I could do was appreciate Y's effort of being a bigger person. He did not only allow the old lady to lie down on his berth but spent the entire night I guess sitting (I'm guessing because I unboarded the train in Agra)

When I was lying on my own berth I was thinking about Y and all of a sudden I had this huge respect for him that made me overwhelmed... I did not sleep either for the rest of my journey (partly because I was over thinking and partly because I had to drop at Agra cantt station in the middle of the night) 

I was happy because this man made me feel like there are still good people and the world is not all bad,  through out the night I was framing sentences to appreciate his good deed. I thought I would say, "Sir, what you did today was a Nobel thing to do, I appreciate it!" but then I re-framed my sentence into, "Sir it was an honourable thing that you did today!" then I had this thought that I must add the point that he ignored whatever negativism X was spreading. But then I thought I should not comment on X, I shouldn't be having any truck with X.

Despite of all this planning and thinking I couldn't find the correct time to say this to him and I decided I would say all this while I'll be unboarding on Agra station, I also thought because I would be dropping off at station my berth probably would be vacant. I'll wake him up and would suggest that he can sleep on my berth until someone else comes, it might give him sometime's sleep.

I anticipated that moment when I'll say those words of appreciation to him, how he'll react I had absolutely no idea.

When we reached Agra cantt station, I assembled all my luggage and started to walk towards the exit.

And you know I passed by Y but all I could do was stare at his sleeping face and move forward...

I think I was not brave enough to appreciate him...

I needed more courage to accept in front of him how virtuous his act was... 

Isn't that so, most of us do not appreciate others because we are not brave enough to say someone did well on their face... Appreciation is an act of valour indeed!!

I later regretted not appreciating him in the beginning itself and every statement that I had planned came into my mind through out the morning until I boarded next train for Etawah...

And after all these years I think I've aged enough to be brave enough to appreciate him... But I don't have him around... So whoever you were Mr Y!  And wherever you are... I hope this message of mine would reach you... 

'I salute your virtue, the way you responded to the situation and the fact that despite knowing X was wrong you maintained your dignity and kept his (X's) too and did not humiliate him... It was all great and honourable... I am happy to have witnessed all of that so that I could still have faith in humanity..."

And though it's not same as saying all that over his face... It still is a relief to have unloaded all this