,This happened about 2 years back. It was 5 p.m. on a Friday evening. Mira came running to me with a piece of paper in her hands; her eyes were full of tears and she was visibly nervous.
Here I have to tell you about Mira. Mira is my friendly neighbor, who has lost her husband about 3 years back. She has two daughters, the eldest doing 10th grade and the younger one in her 6th grade. Mira is a typical Indian housewife. She hails from a middle class family. She has just studied till 10th grade in a village where she has lived with her family all along. After marriage she has come to live in the city with her husband. She has depended on her husband for almost everything in life. That is what I meant by being a 'typical Indian wife'. Of course this may not apply to the city girls and to the women of modern times.
Now back to our story. When Mira lost her husband she thought she would get support from her in-laws but they had somehow manipulated the bank accounts, share certificates, everything, so that Mira could not claim any financial benefits from her husband's family. Moreover, her husband died suddenly and has not written any will.
Poor Mira, she is not educated enough to get a job. Due to her low self-esteem and lack of self confidence, she doesn't dare to go outside her house to look for a job, her kids are also too young to support her financially or morally; on top of all this, her own parents did not help her saying that after marriage she was the property of her husband's family and they had nothing to do with her. Mira therefore, was left in a terrible financial mess.
With this background, Mira was finding it very difficult to run the household. Somehow she was managing with whatever little money she could withdraw from the joint account she had opened along with her husband at a local bank.
Mira always came to us for any help she needed because we have been her friends and neighbors for a long time. During these rough times, suddenly that Friday she came into our house sobbing very badly. She showed me a piece of paper and said, "Sheela has sent this slip with the auto driver" and gave it to me. Sheila is her younger daughter.
Autos are vehicles that are hired to drive our children to school and back home. We can say it is like a mini bus where some more children are taken along with our own. The auto driver is paid on a monthly basis.
The paper read, "Momma, I am going to die. Don't look for me".
I was shocked! A 10-year-old girl has sent a suicide note to her mother! I have never come across such a situation in my life before. So many questions flashed across my mind. What do we do now? Where to go for help? Where has the little girl gone to commit suicide? How could we find her? What is the first thing to do?
While I was thinking all these within my mind, Mira said that the auto driver told her that her daughter had given the slip to him asking him to give it to her mother and she got down near the beach saying that she was visiting a friend in the area.
So that is my clue. I immediately called up the local police station. The superintendent of police asked me to go in person to give a written complaint. I explained to him that there wasn't much time; but due to the nature of the problem and considering the time factor he agreed to just send a couple of police officers to the beach to look for the girl.
I drove Mira along with me to the beach. When we arrived there, there was a police van with no policemen inside. I assumed they were already at work looking for Sheela. Mira and I went on opposite directions in search of her daughter. I walked towards the water. Suddenly in about 10 minutes time, I spotted a small girl standing in the water. Next to her was an old man. As I went closer I could see that she was holding his hand, as though trying to bring him ashore. He was wearing plain white clothes, with a flowing beard.
I started walking towards them and to my relief it was Sheela! I saw that Sheela was walking towards the shore with the old man. Their clothes were all wet. When Sheela saw me, she said, "thank god you are here. This old man was about to drown himself. I found him and am bringing him to the shore." I couldn't believe it. Wasn't she the one who came here to drown? While Sheela was talking to me I looked up at the old man who just smiled and winked at me. I was speechless. He looked so peaceful with pitch black eyes, which were so full of kindness and love! But he acted as though he was resisting Sheila's pull towards the shore while walking along just behind her.
I understood the situation was actually the other way around. Only Sheela did not realize it and thought she had saved the old man. The old man asked for water and I sent away Sheila to get water from one of the near-by shops.
While she was gone, the old man smiled and said, "don't worry madam. Your daughter is safe. I saw her walking towards the water and so I rushed and pretended to drown myself. When she saw me she reached for me in order to save me. I just pretended to resist her help while I held her hand tightly and came towards the shore. Your girl is a kind person. Take her home and take good care of her. I do not know the reason why a small girl of this age would want to die. But my simple advice is be extra kind to her and tell her she is very valuable because she could save lives with her kindness."
While we were nearing our car, Sheila came back with a bottle of water. At this time, Mira also saw her little girl with me and rushed to her daughter. She hugged her and cried uncontrollably, only this time she wept because of happiness and relief that her daughter is safe. My eyes were moist too! What a relief and what an emotional moment for all of us!
I turned to thank the old man, but he was gone! Where is he? He was not found. I could not understand why he would leave without telling us and how he could have left so fast from there? Again I had so many questions in my mind. Who was he? Did he come only to rescue the little girl? How could an old man disappear just like that? I could not find him anywhere in sight.
But this event definitely changed Sheila's attitude in life, I must say. She was more cheerful, more helpful at home, fared very well at school and was never a problem to her mother after this incident.
To this day, I have not found the old man though I had gone to the beach several times in search of him.
Would any of you tell the kind old man that I am still searching for him?
By Girija
(Chennai, Tamilnadu, India)