“Helpless or murderer?” | Short Non-Fiction

There was not much fuel left in my ride that day. But, enough to take me home. Winters had just started, but felt like peek, that night. Had already covered major distance. Passing by Army Cantonment area, when suddenly realized, my wrist watch stopped working. Still looking at my watch every minute. Can’t deal with it. It’s something I can’t live without. Going out without a wrist watch feels like going out without pants ON.

Drove over a very old fly-over. The kind of flyover it is, I wonder how come it hasn’t yet collapsed.

Suddenly passed by a poor man who was sitting on divider and had blown fire, may be to get some heat in that freezing weather.

For a sec, I feel like to do something for him. So, I stopped.

50 miles an hour took some time to get to zero. Pulled over. But I realised I went ahead about 100-200 meters. So, drove back to that poor man.

Parked my vehicle and walked up to him. Can’t explain how badly that flyover was shaking, especially, whenever a bus or any SUV would pass by.

He had a dusty blanket and a dirty bed sheet. Couple of utensils in worse condition.

Constantly he was trying to keep the fire ON, but finding difficulty due to the windy weather.

“Do you sleep here?”, I asked him.

“Haan”, he replied; which means ‘Yes’

“Do you sleep here alone?”, I was curious how he manages everything.

“Yes, as of now, but my brother was here earlier, now he has gone to Faridabad’’, he replied 

He was speaking in Hindi. His replies have been translated.

I asked him what does he do to earn livelihood. He confidently told me that he repairs machines.

“What type of machine?”, by then I had already developed interest in knowing more.

He told me something like embroidery machine. He was not speaking clearly, but I, somehow, was able to understand.

“You getting work these days?” 

“Not really”, he said in low tempo.

“I’m not getting work from quite some time…”, he continued. 

“Why, what happened?”, I asked. 

“Mera record achha nai hai…”, he conveyed. {means “my record is not clean”}

“Record? What do you mean?”

He was quiet for few seconds.

“I had killed a police man”, after a minute he confirmed.

“What?”

“Really? But why?”, I asked him.

“If they will put someone else’s charge on me, what will I do? So, I killed him”, He didn’t sound guilty.

“But what charge… What had happened?”, for a moment I felt like a CBI agent. ;)

He didn’t give me any details. But I asked him, what was the need of killing him, there could be some other way, wasn’t there? He just said he was not guilty for what I did.

“I did what I wanted”, he said.

“Still, killing someone is a sin… Do you believe in God?”, I asked, though I knew what he’d reply.

“Did you go to jail?”, I curiously asked him.

“Yes, for some time I was in jail, then I got bail. Since then, I am living like this…”, he said.

My perception for him totally changed from that point.

“I don’t believe in God”, he said.

But I suppose he suddenly said, “I believe in Allah” Though his language wasn’t so clear, I still took the liberty to ask him if there is any difference in ‘Allah & ‘God’.

To which he didn’t reply.

“Killing someone is an offence, no matter what the reason you are killing for”, I said.

He was not ready to accept his mistake. I then didn’t push him further considering the fact I did not know the actual situation. Also, because I know that not all policemen are honest and law-abiding. Especially in a country like India where corruption has been the utmost concern since ages.

So, I decided to leave his destiny with him, and continued my job.

“Anyway, leave it… I have food. Do you want to eat food?”, I did exactly for what I stopped my ride for.

I had some food, I gave it to him and I also asked him to think over what he did, and I got back to my routine.

Got back to my two-wheeler and looked at my watch again to see the time. Which quite made me laugh… :)

#KnowLifeBetter

**The End**

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