Inhuman face of city life

While coming to my office today at Sector 5, Salt lake, I had started late from home and as expected didn't find the AC Winger shuttle that I usually take. I could have waited in the line for 10-15 minutes for it, but maybe it was some fate that made me take an AC 50 bus. That bus does not come to sector 5 so I had to get down at Haldiram on VIP road. There at the bus stop next to Country Club residence, I saw an old woman (probably 80-85 years old) sitting in one of the chairs and she looked absolutely downfall and rejected and sick. Her eyes had yellowed and the strong April Sun was too much for her age. During office time usually, old woman are not seen sitting in bus stoppage. So I was intrigued why was she sitting there? was she lost? or did she lose her memory or money? or did her family throw her out? She didn't look like a beggar or a mad person. I was already late for office. But I have always believed nothing is more important, not even losing your job than to help another human being in dire need. I have done exactly the same thing in 2010 when I was a professor at Brainware, and was similarly late for work, helping an old lady cross the Hooghly river. So I asked that woman "Thaku ma where will you go? do you need money to go somewhere?" She said she needs no money. She also said, she is feeling terribly sick. She looked as if she would die any moment. Now Haldiram bus stop on VIP road on the way to Sector 5 at 10 am is a busy place, with executives flashing their iPhones and arrogance. But no one cared to ask that woman anything. People are so busy with their self-centred lives. The old woman then said she is from Madhyamgram, and she used to work at a flat near Haldiram. I understood she might have come from Madhyamgram to look for her previous workplace in need of money and might have forgotten the flat she worked or her employers have not entertained her. I gave her 20Rs, as I myself had 100-150Rs with me, and I had to get back home with 60Rs. I told her the way to go for Madhyamgram bus. I also asked her if she needed water, She said no. I then found a coconut seller and bought a coconut and gave it to her. Maybe the coconut water with high potassium makes her fit enough to travel back home. maybe she would die of sunstroke sitting in that chair. Maybe she would reach Madhyamgram and then the issue that made her come so far in search of work come up and numb her to death. Some spiritual gurus say we don't actually suffer, we just witness the suffering. So when you cut a finger, you feel pain because you are witnessing the cut. But what pained me most is that no person cared enough to ask another human being in distress. A human's first dharma should be to help another human. As the novelist Sarat Chandra Chatterjee wrote "manus er mrittu amakey dukkho day na, manusotter mrittu amakey dukkho day" meaning it is not the death of humans that pains me, it is the death of humanity that pains me. Indian economy is growing above 7% of GDP and people are getting rich, but are they getting humane? Do rich people find sukh with the loss of hamnity? The bard had wrote "Bharat abar Jogot sobhay srestho ason lobey/ Dhormey mohan hobey, kormey mohan hobey" to not look at a dying old woman, is this the Dharma that would make India great?

No it won't.