Recently I was traveling in India, (for the 4th time), when a disastrous thing happened.
Now when I travel, no matter what country, I am super cautious about some things .. first is to always keep my passport,wallet, bank cards etc, hidden in a money belt under my undies. Then just use another wallet with some spare cash.
However I slipped up badly.on this trip.
I was at a train station in central India .. it was hectic and I am getting a bit old .. so got confused in all the crowd and for some reason used my real wallet to pay a fare, then looked around and it was gone.
I will not say it was stolen, more likely my elderly brain simply misplaced it.
But the bottom line is it was gone.
.. and with it my credit cards.
Aggh, here I was with just a small amount of Rupees in my spare wallet .. in a strange town, and, well, totally busted.
I contacted the train Police to see if they could help .. and guess what ?
They checked the station video etc to no avail, then suddenly,without being asked in any way, two lovely Police Officers, Punam and Samuji reached into their own wallets and gave me some cash to get me through, then also dug deeper into their finances to buy me a train ticket to the nearest Australian Consulate in Calcutta (Kulkota0
Now the big things here are :-
They did not know me at all.
They earn far less money than I can at home
They had no assurance of ever getting this money back.
I was overwhelmed with gratitude for what they had so freely done.
In the end I managed to find a way back home by the hair on my chinny chin chin, but I still have no way to send them back those rupees .. which they could not easily afford ,
So the only way I can think is to thank them is here .. on a public blog.
Thank you both ever so much, you are a great credit to your uniforms and to all India. .
