Faith in the darkened hour.

The incident: December 1: A  LTTE suicide bomber triggers the explosives packed into a vehicle in Colombo as a five car convoy carrying Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse passes by, in an attempt to assassinate him. Secretary Rajapakse escapes unharmed, although two people are killed and 14 others are wounded, mostly civilians who were passing by the site.

“Faith is a good thing to have”, as the revered actor Tim Robbins explains to a fellow con (The famous actor, Morgan Freeman) in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”. Definitely faith is the greatest asset. I have learnt this lesson from an incident that took place while I was in Columbo.

It was the December of year 2006, when the Srilankan capital was the target of suicide attacks and claymore mines. I was aware of the situations around and was staying in a hotel on Gole Road.

It was the morning of December 1^st, and I took a walk towards Hall of Fashion, a super mall. I was not familiar with directions and I have to ask every pedestrian to show me the directions. The weather was fine and it was drizzling and I enjoyed the walk. I was planning to purchase some clothes for my relatives and wife. Finally when I reached the mall, I realized that it was really a good place and I keenly and devotedly spent hours to select the finest piece of apparels for my family.

It was a bargained purchase as indian INR was equivalent for 2.50 Srilankan Rupees. After the satisfactory purchase, I was standing near the cash counter to make the payment. My International debit card was rejected twice and I finally paid through cash. My mind was perturbed because of reasons unknown. This card rejection was adding to my mental tension and paying cash was an involuntary decision. I didn’t like it, as I didn’t want myself to be deprived off every single coin in that remote troubled island. There was no other way and I was left without cash. The cashier was looking at the computer screen when people inside the mall started running. People were shrieking and running and I could not understand the reason for such commotion. Moreover they were shouting in Sinhalese and I was not able to understand anything.

I could not understand anything and my mind feared the worst. Fear which is in direct opposition to faith, creates two types of reactions, opposition and escapism. In my case, second was the most appropriate at the moment and I ran outside. The street was full of commandos. Sky was masked with a huge clouds of dark smoke emanating from a very nearby spot. I was aware that something very wrong has happened and was trying to find a way out, but the problem was the directions. My memory of directions got blurred and smoke and chaos just added to it. Suddenly, Commandos started pointing guns towards me and they were shouting in their local lingo. My English skills were really put to test. They were actually making signs ordering me to evacuate the place. I tried to explain in vain, and nobody budged. I ran towards a different lane but there were barricades over there. Suddenly, I realized that I forgot my passport in the hotel and this realization put me into an unintentional mental block. Still, my faith and positive attitude persisted with a deep force and I was remembering God to help me out.

I was repeatedly repeating the name of God when a three wheeler buzzed past me. It just stopped a few meters away from me and a head popped out. It was a sikh gentleman. I cannot explain the happiness derived from finding another co-countryman in that drastic situation. He was waving his hand in a gesture telling me to come. I ducked in his auto and he put a force on his accelerator. We took a turn and he blazed past the commandoes. They were looking at us furiously with their AK-47 muzzles pointed towards us. My rescuer entered another lane with his three wheeler.

We kept moving and it was a maze until he asked me where to go. “Where to”, wow!.

I told him I do not remember the name of the hotel as it was planned by my business associate. Secondly, the name was not even mentioned on the key given to me. He was very anxious and repeatedly asked me to remember something about the hotel. I informed him that it was on Gole road. He told me that Gole road is stretched to 300 km and it could be anywhere. My head was spinning and I could not understand what to do. He halted the wheeler near a lane which was abandoned. There was a small shop which was closed due to curfew. He went out and started knocking at the window. A man just looked out from the ventilator shaft above, and the sikh gentleman said something in Sinhalese. The window opened and he purchased a water bottle and some biscuits. I was surprised when he gave it to me. He told me to calm down and have some water. The cold water from the bottle relieved me a lot. My faith was crawling in slowly, slowly as my mind was still tempering with my memory for the whereabouts of my hotel.

Courtesy: The Hindu

He informed me that the explosion I saw was an assassin attempt to drive an explosive loaded auto-rickshaw into some politician’s convoy as it travelled through that street in Columbo. Some commandos were instantly killed and a few of pedestrians were seriously injured as well. I was lucky as I came out a few minutes later after the blast (A great thanks to my repeated card rejection at the counter). I told him again that I could not remember the name of the hotel and my passport is there. He got worried as passport was an absolute necessity. He told me not to worry and then we started moving again. I can sense his tension as we passed through some narrow lanes. He finally stopped in front of a small brick house. He told me to come in and I followed him to this house, which was his own house. It was a small house and his was a small family. He told me to relax, and asked his wife to prepare tea for me. His children were staring at me from behind a curtain. I moved my hand in a friendly sign and then they came out. I have purchased few candy boxes from the mall and I distributed the candies to them. Their smiling faces were enough to rejuvenate my faith and I felt a rush to abandon all fears. The sikh gentleman switched on the television to some news channel, which was reporting the incident we faced a few minutes before. The politician was none other than the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse who narrowly escaped the ambush.

After the hot cup of tea, a few doses of smiles and a comforting treatment, I really tried hard to solve the puzzle related to my location. Reloaded with faith and revitalised spirit, I somehow recollected that while we were going to our hotel, I saw another hotel nearby which carried a hindi name. My momentary glance just gave me few starting alphabets which was “M” in English. I shared this information with my saviour and he said he knew the hotel as it is the only hotel on Gole road which carried a Hindi name ( My luck) . We jumped back in the auto and this time we started moving towards the right direction. We reached the hotel within fifteen minutes which was just a few blocks away from the place of incident.

He stopped the rickshaw in the front of my hotel which was adjacent to the hotel I remembered. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart and took the purse out to pay, but there was no cash. I told him to wait because there was an ATM nearby, but he just shunned the idea. He told me to go inside the hotel and take rest. He refused to accept anything. All my requests of paying back were rejected. He told me that he was happy to be able to help a fellow countryman. I thanked him again and he waived me goodbye.

I have deep faith in supreme power and due to that, I have faith in mankind as well, and this incident just reassured my faith in human kindness. This incident left a deep impact on me as it was not just an act of kindness but an act of valour as well. This unknown gentleman (I forgot to ask his name) risked his very life for a stranger without a passport. He could have been jailed along with me for his act but this never dampened his spirits a bit.