The kindness of Strangers: When we were lost

I still remember how this old woman, who was a complete stranger helped us in returning to our hotel. 

We had come for jungle safari in a wildlife sanctuary. We got up early in the morning, my husband proposed to go for a nature walk, Where was the delay? We both got into track pants, put on walking shoes, we were ready to explore the park.

As soon as we left the area of our resort, left the civilization behind to enter into forest, we took a wrong turn and moved ahead on a tangent. In no time we realized that we were lost. I was in panic. There was no way we could call anyone from the resort to help us since there was no network in the forest. We both refused to take a guide or helper in the morning and shown our over confidence to the manager by saying, 

” Why are you offering us a guide? We are going just for a nature walk. Thanks for the concern..”

Tarun observed the path and started moving like a soldier, after all they have been trained to come out of such situations.

Finally we reached a village where this old lady was fetching water from the well. We asked her the directions and the route towards the main gate of the sanctuary. We thought she must not be knowing about our resort.

Neither she knew proper hindi, nor english. Only language she knew was her local dialect. I was little apprehensive about sharing with her our problem. Somehow I made her understood through my actions.  I tried to guess what she conveyed. She told us to follow her.

She smiled, told us to wait and then filled her pot with water. She then kept the filled pot on her head. How the water was being pulled from the well was very interesting to watch.

The old woman kept her pot on her head, smiled and started walking. We followed her. I captured her photos with permission. We were zapped when we took a turn and found ourselves right in front of the resort.

I was overwhelmed with her kindness. She walked all the way with so much weight just to make sure we reach safely and timely in our area. Her kindness touched our hearts and she was not a stranger anymore.

We offered her food and tea which she politely refused. She again picked up the bucket, took a long breath, walked away.  I watched the kind soul balancing her utensils until she was disappeared from the scene.