“I was waiting for an auto at 2pm from kothrud to e-square, but as on the occasion of Holi there were none. So I waited for about 15 minutes and then I started walking on the pathway , when suddenly one autowala came from back and wished me “Happy Holi” and asked ‘where I wish to go’.? I hopped into his rickshaw. He was an old man, wearing plain white marathi style kurta & pajama, with no stains of colour. I was surprised but didn’t asked anything, I noticed he was little tensed and was searching for someone. I asked him “dada what happened?”. He said that “the customers before me on this rickshaw took his tiffin box and he is searching for them, for last 1 hour”. I said “its ok, no problem, eat somewhere else”. Then he told me ” he lived 50km away from Pune and here he lives on rent. And he gets a single tiffin for both the times of a day, and he added that today is his 69th birthday & his wife specially cooked some good food for him and now he is unable to taste that.” I asked “why can’t you eat outside”? He replied that he didn’t earned enough money as the earlier customers didn’t gave him much and mine fare will also be less for survival of both the meals.” When we reached e-square, I got an idea and asked him to join me for a lunch. When I asked him what he wanted to eat, he simply said “wada sambhar”. I said you can have anything you want from the menu, but he insisted for the wada sambhar saying wada is heavy, I can survive till night on one plate. We sat on the bench in some small hotel besides e-square. Then I asked him why hadn’t he played Holi with anyone and then he replied “I don’t know anyone in this city and others are not willing to play Holi with me, as they all are busy in their money making life”. I ordered for sweets to celebrate his birthday and also played Holi with him. I paid for his food and auto fare and gave him some food for the night meal. He blessed me and said ,”Happy Holi ma’am, now I’ve somebody in this city to play Holi with.” This person showed me how you can trust a total stranger and how our small efforts can bring the happiness for these people on such festive day. It taught me to believe in humanity.” Submitted By – Shreya
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