Mangalore: When help comes Unasked for...

by Florine Roche
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Aug 18 : Just the other day I was passing through the Bejai down the circuit house road where concreting of the road is going on at around 8 pm.    Suddenly I saw a group of men trying to push down a jeep which had climbed the median and was precariously placed in that narrow concrete road. It was pitch dark and the driver, a slightly old man was nervous and could not muster courage to pull it down the high median for the fear of hitting other vehicles parked on the side of the road.  Looking at the plight one of the men gathered  asked the owner to get down and took over the seat to bring down the  vehicle safely much to the joy of all those who had gathered and were rendering their help to push the vehicle come down safely. 

The jeep owner who had come from some other part of Karnataka had climbed the median in the narrow road when a city bus had failed to give him enough space to move on.  The people who had gathered there were public, some of them pedestrians, some two—wheeler drivers and also auto drivers.  They did not know the man who was struggling to extricate his vehicle from the mess he had found himself in. But  they ran to his rescue, parking their vehicles aside and forgetting about their personal work.  Once the job was done and the vehicle was brought down safely, with the help of the public assembled , the man thanked them profusely and drew away  with a smiling face. 

In the last few years Mangalore  has been making  international headlines  for all the wrong reasons  and traits like the helping nature of the people of the coastal districts, something unique in this part of the land,  often goes unnoticed.  Most Mangaloreans must have benefitted in one way or the other from this benign and helping nature and the largesse of fellow Mangaloreans,  whose timely help and goodness must have helped them in times of emergencies.   Be it a vehicle turning turtle, an accident or a two wheeler  driver falling into a pot hole and struggling to come out or any other problems they face in public places,  there are good Samaritans who appear from nowhere, giving a helping hand,  at a time when it is needed the most.  

Recalls Prabhakar K, a marketing executive who had met with an accident 2 years back near Mallikatta.  His bike collided with Bullet at about 9.30 pm and his knee was fractured.  Even that late people had gathered and  had called for an ambulance as he told them he cant travel in the auto as his knee was broken and got  him admitted to a local hospital personally and also informed his family.  “I was unconscious for sometime as I did not know what had happened.  I drank some water that someone gave and when they tried to lift me I had realized my knee was fractured and told them to arrange an ambulance.  Many people who gathered  around me waited till the ambulance arrived and one of them came to the hospital along.  I really cannot forget their timely help”, Prabhakar recounts.   

“This helping nature of Mangaloreans in times of emergencies is something unique and people often go out of the way to render help”, says Praveen D Souza,  a sales executive, l who has been a beneficiary of the timely help he had received when he had fallen  from his two-wheeler  after a lorry  had hit the side mirror of his bike while trying to avoid a pothole.  “The auto which was just behind me stopped and the driver came rushing to me.  Even people who were sitting in the auto lifted my vehicle as my leg was caught under the bike”, Praveen narrates.  

Just two days back another acquaintance of mine,  Chandrahas Suvarna, a contractor,  who went home for lunch,  left his food halfway through when his  neighbours came running requesting to drive the pregnant lady to the hospital who had developed labour pains unexpectedly.  He drew the woman to the hospital  with two other ladies accompanying her and stayed back till her husband  came from his office as there were only two ladies who were not confident of handling the situation in  case some help was needed. “It was an emergency and it is my duty to help in whatever way I could.  I have my work everyday  but emergencies like this crop up occasionally.  We cannot be so blind to the emergency needs of people and think only about the material gains.  Money comes and goes but the help given will always remain entrenched in the minds of beneficiaries.  More than that it has given me the satisfaction of being able to help someone in need ”, explains  Chandrahas.

There are myriad incidents of this nature which have brought to the fore the genuineness of the people of these coastal region.  One cannot forget the sacrifice of the people who lost their lives when they tried to rescue the children in the boat tragedy in Pilikula,  a few years back.  People present around there responded spontaneously in  a sudden reaction to reach out to the children, which made these good Samaritans to jump into the water without bothering  about the safety of their own lives.  And who can forget the timely and immediate response of Mangaloreans during the recent air crash tragedy?  Remember people who had assembled near the mobile tower when the lady had climbed its top to draw attention of the authorities to seek justice?   Many of them might have been curious onlookers but there were people who were genuine and who were genuinely concerned about her  safety.

With potholes galore in our ever problematic roads, the only solace we can have is the genuine help that is available in case (touchwood) something goes awry while driving.  

Mangalore is inhabited by good people, who are kind and helpful, service minded and who never hesitate risking their own lives when the situation calls for. While helping out they don’t see the caste, creed or religion of the person who needs the help.  It is just the human being that matters.   In bigger cities when people hardly care for others or their own neighbors, it is indeed our good fortune to see the humaneness alive and bountiful among our people.  We have to thank our stars as we are still untouched by that wave of indifference and lack of concern for the fellow human being, common in metro cities.