It was just another day and I would never have thought that I would be having such an adventure that day. I had gone to Bangalore to attend a function alongwith my parents, sister and my kid. Return tickets to Hyderabad were booked and everything was set. There was plenty of time the day we were to leave to Hyderabad, so my sister and I decided to go shopping with my cousins. Luckily traffic was less and we came back home just as my parents were getting our luggage ready. We had more than an hour to reach the railway station. Our cousin offered to drop us. And then the adventure started....
Suddenly the traffic became so heavy that we were literally counting minutes at each and every signal, hoping we would be able to catch the train. But just as we had feared, we reached the railway station just as the train was leaving. There was no way we could catch it.
So we rushed through the traffic to the next station which was about 10 km away. But this time too we missed it. We started looking for other options - booking bus tickets or something, but we didnt know if we would get the tickets on such short notice. I was desperate to go back to Hyderabad the same day as I got just a day's leave with great difficulty. Just then a porter came along. He saw the confusion and offered - "I can take you to the next station - its like just half an hour drive from here. The train stops for 10 minutes there. You can easily catch the train". We didn't see a better option. We took the chance. We rushed to the next station Yelahanka with the porter telling us the route. Till half the distance everything looked good. But it was past half an hour and no signs of any railway station. We got impatient and started asking the porter how farther the station was. Every time we asked the question, we got the same answer - "It takes just 10 more minutes". Added to that, he got confused about the route on the highway and we had to drive back for a kilometre to get onto the right road. All of us started getting impatient and thought that the porter was just trying to get some money out of us. We started to shout at the porter that he promised to take us to the station when he wasn't even sure of the route and the distance. The porter said "Please trust me. I'm telling you - you will remember me for the rest of your life. I will definitely take you to the station and you will catch the train". After one and half hours we reached the station to see that the train was at the platform ready to leave. We took our luggage and started running as the train was quite far from the entrance. My poor mother had to carry my kid as I was carrying a heavier suitcase. The porter also helped us with a suitcase and all the while I was carefully keeping an eye on him lest he run away with the suitcase. We ran for an eternity and finally caught the train just in time. We were totally out of breath after the long run. We thanked the porter and gave him some money which he accepted happily. Thats when I felt that its really difficult to judge and to trust a stranger - but sometimes its worth a shot!!
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