Airports bring out the best and the worst in us.
A couple of years ago, I was at the Jayprakash Narayan Domestic Airport (Patna), waiting for my luggage at the start of a conveyor belt. A young and tall European lady was also at the baggage conveyor belt, standing a few steps away from me. She was surrounded by a few men who offered to help her get her luggage and probably a taxi. The rest had jammed their trolleys to the belt and had blocked access to it.
I was at the start of the conveyor belt, but there was a family before me, three kids and their parents. Standing behind this family, I noticed an old foreign lady who looked like her 70s. I looked around to see if there was someone with her, but she was alone.
She was trying to get a glimpse of the belt to check if her luggage had come out. After a while, a small red bag came out, her face lit up, and I realized it was her bag. She tried telling the family to take it for her, but they were all busy looking at the young lady, and so was everyone on the belt. No one heard the old woman, and she seemed really worried. The poor soul was looking at her bag as if it was never going to come back. I left my trolley and ran to get the bag, and I tried to pick it up a couple of times, but I couldn’t because of all those trolleys blocking my way! Finally, when I reached the other side of the belt, I just managed to get it before it went out. I came back to the old lady and gave her the bag. I will never forget what she said to me next…
She said to me, “I have been in India for a month, and I have had a terrible experience; no one helped me with anything, and I was troubled by people for money, but I will now go back with a happy memory.”
I wanted to be happy about what I had done, maybe even get a pat on the back, but I hung my head in shame. There’s so much for us to learn.
Mihir Narvilkar 