The Good Samaritan

Dear Readers,

This an incident which always touches my heart whenever I hear it from my cousin ( I heard it today also for that matter through telecon) or think of it.

My cousin who was a teacher in a school teaching higher classes was trying to better her education by sitting for her Masters in order to get a lecturer’s post in some college. This was the year 1970 in Hyderabad. She had already one Master’s degree but only with a pass in the 3rd division which was not considered enough for the post she was aiming for. So she took up Public Administration as a subject for her Master’s this time and wanted to get a second division with a hope in her heart.

She would appear as a private candidate as she was already working and could not attend regular college. She had to fend for herself and her only daughter at that time, though she had other kind of moral support from a big family on her mother’s side.

With only a crucial 2 days left for the exam paper on public administration and the prescribed book still not anywhere in sight (all the books were borrowed by the regular students of the Osmania University from the Library) her fear was real. She had not had the opportunity to even glance at the book anywhere and with the exam so close by she was feeling very frustrated and jittery about the outcome of this exam on which her future was so very dependent.

As chance would have it, our uncle who was the headmaster of the All Saints’ High School took her along with him to a book exhibition held at the Nizam’s college grounds that day. While going around the book stalls she chanced upon this elusive book and could not take her eyes off it. She kept turning its pages for a long time with no decent sum in her purse with which to buy it off the shelf. My uncle too never carried any simply because they dint have that kind of money in those days. Seeing her interest in the book the Muslim shopkeeper asked her what the matter was. She simply said that her exam was just 2 days away and this was the only book which can help her pass and she could not afford to buy the book as it was priced high at Rs.80/-.

The shopkeeper quietly packed the book in a brown paper sheet and offered it to her saying she can take it, read from it and then return it back to him at the stall after her exams two days later. She was overjoyed and surprised at the turn of events and in turn offered her wrist watch as security against the prized book which he politely declined to accept. It was simply a divine intervention.

She came back home and read a portion in a hurry promising to read it thoroughly the next and the only day left to study. She planned for her young daughter to be sent to our house to play for the day. Told the servant not to come for the day. Cooked a very limited meal and sat down to read the voluminous book. A few hours later, a knock on her door and a couple coming down from Bellary (her late husband’s dear friend and his wife had come to spend the day with the mother and daughter)! Of all days!! But we cannot turn our guests away, who have come from a far off village to meet us, so entertain them she did. She offered them an aloo bhaat (spicy steamed rice with potatoes), chatted with them but deep inside, her mind was on the time that was running out for her!
Then come evening the couple left as the little daughter had not returned even then. The daughter came home for the night, again preparing a meal and washing dishes and what was left was just one night and the next day was the exam day! After putting her daughter to sleep and a bout of crying, she began to read through quickly whatever she could in between nodding off.
The next day at the exam was also tension filled and somehow she wrote her paper that day hoping little to make it in the 2nd division this time around too.
She had very little hopes of passing in the 2nd division and on the day of the results she cried her heart out for she had barely managed to scrape through with a second division in her MA, Public Administration.
Her journey as a lecturer in a government college started off with a better pay packet though she had to travel a long distance by the local train to a college in Dabeerpura on the outskirts of the city of Hyderabad to earn it.

Sbe did return the book to the good samaritan without whose help her dream of moving up in life would have got postponed to yet another year.

At times a power above gives us opportunities and also tests us for strength. We have to make the best of the time we have under the circumstances is the strong message that comes through. We have one life to live and it is 'now' that we can do something positive about it and give ourselves a chance to prove that we are worthy of ourselves.

This is all about a burning desire to achieve something in life.
This is about keeping the effort on to find that elusive something until we get it.
This is about being there at the right place at the right time.
This is about a stranger giving us a helping hand with no conditions attached and in total trust.
This is about those unexpected obstacles which come our way to test us.
This is about making up for lost time at the cost of a sleepless night.
This is about the dawn offering hope of light shining in our lives.
This is about making it against all odds.
This is about God's unseen hands lifting us mortals up with our spirits intact.
This is about divine intervention all the way through.

Since then my cousin has shared this incident with many of her students through the years and so will any who might read this.
Grab that opportunity and make something of your life! Move on.
You have nothing to lose except success!!

Cheers!
Mahalakshmi