It was the first time a stranger had asked me for help. A hand came onto my shoulder and I heard a heavy voice. “Son, do you know the way to N.C. Jain’s house?”. I saw him mouth a couple of words but I was too overwhelmed to understand any of it. My judgement had already begun to cloud and I started imagining all of the wonderful praises that would come my way for my immense helpful attitude. I immediately hold onto the stranger’s hand and walked with him to N.C. Jain’s house. On my way back, I couldn’t help but think about my sister who is 6 years older to me and how she is always praised for the charity work that she does from school. She would participate in almost every charity event, teach the poor kids and even bring them food. I was only 9 years then so I wasn’t yet capable of teaching anyone. My mother always said that even a small help is great work. I couldn’t wait for my Mom to praise me for what I had done. When I got home, I saw my Mother waiting outside with a very worried look on her face. I went up to her and asked if something was wrong. She replied saying that grandma is sick and the doctor was taking too long to arrive. Those were the times where mobile phones didn’t exist and only a few houses had telephones in them. My Mom told me to go to Mathur Uncle’s house and call my father and notify him on the situation. When I was returning back home, I saw N.C Jain uncle entering my house with the same stranger saying that someone had misdirected him to his house instead. That’s when I suddenly remembered that my Fathers name was also N.C. Jain. The urge of getting appreciated flew out of my mind and I zipped my mouth and never appeared before the doctor.
Ruchi jain