Trust is a Sin

Just a few days back, another horrendous incident happened with yet another girl. The incident also happened at the costs of trust. Trust which a girl laid upon strangers. Reading about it, lead me to think about an incident happened with me 5 years back in Delhi which I call my first class on trust is a sin.

It was in March 2015 that my father had a bypass surgery in Bangalore. After taking a good rests in Bangalore Maa and Babba came back to Haldwani. They took a flight from Bangalore to Delhi and had to take a next day train to Haldwani. Thus they stayed for a day in Ghaziabad at my aunt’s place. As my father was still recuperating from the surgery, it was not wise for the two of them to travel alone to Haldwani. Hence, I decided to accompany them, thinking after-all what good are kids than for. At Delhi I stay in Hauz Khas which is almost at 1.5 hours distance from my aunt’s place. I told my parents I will take the metro at around 5:00 pm and reach home by 6:30 pm. They were excited and OK with the plan.

So as per the plan I was in the yellow line of Delhi metro at 5:00 pm. Luckily I got a seat in the women’s coach. Immediately after I sat, a girl requested to adjust her too. Like always, the ladies coach was gracious to accommodate maximum number of people to rest. I was busy reading a book, when this girl asked if I had some water. I offered her the last few drops of the water I had. She didn’t seem well at all. I also noticed, she looked to be coming from a well-to-do family. Seeing her condition I asked her if all was well and where does she have to go. She said she is feeling very dizzy and needs to go to Noida. I told her it will be difficult for you to change the trains alone so I will help you at Rajeev Chowk station as the place is nothing less than a tsunami of people.

As the station approached, I took her hand and helped her in the escalator. I was genuinely concerned for the girl as I thought she had a low blood pressure. I said if you want water you can buy from CCD or can have a lemoneade there too. She told she normally doesn’t have such a strong hangover like today and would like to go home. I then realized it was the alcohol that lead to this “low blood pressure”. But anyway, it was her choice so I didn’t judge her on that basis. But this information made me more concerned about her, as she could not walk properly and she was actually a very beautiful girl. I thought of all the bad things that could happen to her and out of nowhere wanted to protect her. So instead of taking my train, I hopped into her train and arranged for a seat for her to sit. My conscience asked me to drop her to her station now. Meanwhile it was already 6:30 pm and my parents were expecting me to come anytime soon. I then went to Noida, and helped her across the stairs, arranged for an auto and asked her to message me when she reaches home safely. I thought it was natural to do all this specially for a girl to help another girl.

Finally I reached my aunt’s place at 8:00 pm. All along the route I was very happy with what I did and was excited to tell the same to my family. But unlike the reaction that I had expected, I was actually given a good lecture particularly by my Uncle. The lecture came out of concern and affection. He said what an immature decision you made today. How did you know that she herself was not part of a group who may have abducted you or maybe done all the horrible things with you instead? Had anything happened with the girl, you would have been the last person she was with. How would you have defended yourself? How were you responsible for her safety? All these and a lot more of such “how” continued for some time. It was then that he told me , you have not been maligned by this city so you gave no concern to these questions. But living in cities comes at a cost and the costs is “do not trusts anyone”. I could not answer him or anyone that evening. How could I not trust people lingered in my mind. When did we become so paranoid? When did compassion become foolish?

It took me only couple of evening stroll in the city alone, that I got all the answers. Each specie lays trusts on one’s own as long as they are not cannibals. But as evolution continued, the rules of evolution changed too. Cannibalism is no more restricted to food, it has evolved too, particularly towards treatment of the prey which in case of humans are normally the females who are rightly called “the second sex”.