Stranger at home

Strangers growing stranger trees!

I met him in a bus some twenty five years back. I was travelling from my town to a big city to attend an interview at a premier institution for a Project Associate job. (The plan was to reach the city the night before the interview. My dad advised me to stay in a hotel near the institute for the night. I said 'yes'). This sexagenarian gentleman was sitting next to me during the travel. We exchanged 'Hi', 'Hello's and he followed it up by the customary question 'So, Why are you travelling to the city?'. I told him the reason and his face lit up when I mentioned the name of the institute. I thought he was an alumni and asked him about his connection to this institute. It turned out that he was living close to this institute for very many years. We started talking, about the city, about the institute, about the job...

'Where are you going to stay tonight?' 

'I will find some hotel nearby. Why, do you know any good places?'

He was quiet for a brief time. I thought he was sorting out a choice hotel for me...

'Well, I know a place which is very good, very close to the venue and in a very safe neighbourhood'.

Piqued, I asked him for the address of the hotel.

He looked at me and said 'It is my home'.

This was pre-Internet era, I still had innocence and tons of positivity left in me post my college days. Generally world was still a better place to live. Still, I asked him why he wanted to host a total stranger at his house. I was totally taken back by his response. Till date I could not imagine anybody offering such a reason to invite a totally unknown person to stay a night in a unfamiliar environment with the inherent risks associated with it...

'I am a heart patient...My wife is not at home...I am afraid of staying there alone in the night...'

I could 'see' fear, not just in his eyes but in his whole being when he said this.

I made a spontaneous decision (never thought about the heightened risk factors like what if this guy suffers an attack at the middle of the night? etc...) to help him. Told you, I was young and believed in a fair world.

We alighted near his home. He offered me a very comfortable room. We chatted for a while before saying 'good night'.

'Good Morning'!

'Oh Good Morning!. What time is it?'

'6. Coffee is getting ready, Geyser is on. You will get hot water in 10 minutes'.

Oh my, this man was alive and kicking in a 'happy to be alive this morning' way! I got up, got ready, enjoyed the filter coffee he made and read the newspaper that he graciously offered me BEFORE reading it himself (regular morning news paper grazers surely know how significant a gesture this is!). He even made a nice breakfast, shared it with me, then walked with me to the institute to drop me off and wished me good luck before vanishing.

This 'stranger at his own home' did not have any phone connection; I didn't bother to note down his address and he, mine. I did not know whether his wife returned on that evening as planned or not and whatever happened to him after that day though I kept checking the obituary column for the next few weeks in the newspaper (it was a coincidence that we both liked to read the same news paper).

Old age, loneliness, fear of dying, a need for an assurance that help is nearby...all these must have made him to make that offer to me the evening before. I am not sure whether he would have made that offer to any other passenger had I not boarded that bus on that evening but couldn't care less. The joy of making a stranger happy was, well, joyful.

The chances of this kind of an incident happening in the current '24*7 connected world' are quite low I would say but the loneliness quotient seems to have increased in tandem with the density of the 'connection' as most us are totally immersed in a 'make believe' world that is totally totally disconnected from the ground beneath. In a way, we have truly become strangers in our own home called earth. 

I love technology. I myself was a techie by profession and still 'am' at my heart. Still, I know this for sure: "Fiber"ous roots don't make a healthy tree!