3 January 2014

Nice experience

As we were deplaning in Frankfurt, I noticed an elderly lady struggling to get her suitcase down from the bin. A gentleman – probably in his fifties, quickly stepped up to help, pulled the suitcase with one hand and swung it down.

It is then I realized that he did not have a second arm!!!

I further realized that he is the same guy that I helped put his own suitcase up in Munich when we were boarding. I did it very mechanically when I saw him trying to put his suitcase up with one hand. I did not give a second thought to ask myself why would he possibly be Using one hand only. I don’t think I even made eye contact when I acknowledged his thanks.

At that moment, among the flurry of emotions I was going thru – seeing a man extending a helping hand – in fact, his only hand – to an elderly lady and that I was too casual in acknowledging his gratitude previously, all I could blurt out to him was “Hey, I was coming to help”. He put me at ease by smiling and saying with a heavy German accent “It’s ok. Gravity helps!”

I wish I had the guts to take a picture with him. It would have been too weird.

But, what spirit!! In the lounge, I tried for a few minutes to see what life would be with one arm by using only my right arm. Miserably failed. Could not even type out this message!!!

The world still has great guys – regardless of what the TV channels and newspapers focus on…



Posted January 3, 2014 by Rajib Roy in category "Vacations

7 COMMENTS :

  1. By Lax KV on

    Appreciated the spirit. Nice of you Rajib to recognize & share. Recently I met Girish Gogia who is an inspirational speaker . See on FB his profile how a person with only 10% of his body being functional, teaches us how to live. Cheers. Lax

    Reply
  2. By Kuntal Sengupta on

    For a while I thought that the one armed guy was a long lost janitorial staff of one of your prior workplaces..darn this storyline turned different 😉

    Reply
  3. By Rupak Ganguly on

    Rajib Roy, again inspiring. Thx for sharing. We sometimes fail to recognize what we already have, and instead just want more.

    Reply

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