Helping Hand

Months ago as I was going towards Usman Road, I was approached by a person. He was accompanied by two other men and two women with five small kids. He spoke to me in Hindi. He said his family had climbed the wrong train so landed up in Chennai and now they were short of cash to go back to their hometown Sangli, Maharashtra. He said he needed only some money to give some food to his kids. I felt a bit bad and handed over a fifty ruppee note. He thanked me. Again a month or two after the incident, as I was walking through T Nagar, a man approached me asking whether I knew Hindi. I kept quite and walked away.

Today it happenned again.....

I was walking from Haddows Road towards the Gemini Flyover. As I turned towards the right of Taj Hotel, an elderly gentleman who was walking by asked me where is Taj Hotel. I replied it's just around the corner. He continued "Can you tell me which bus goes towards IIT from the Taj Bus Stop?". I replied "I'm new to Chennai so don't know much". He asked "Where you are from?" I replied with a bit of hesitation "Kerala". He said "Is it? Even I'm new to Chennai. I just came today morning from Trichinapalli to join IIT!!" He continued "Are you an engineer?" I knew an affirmative reply would pronlong the conversation. I gently said with a smile "No".

Errata: The hotel I turned from was not Taj. It was Park.