The bystander

Posted in Stories on 14th June 2020
Tags: story

"Do you maybe want to stop drooling on me kid?" Tom woke up with a start. The middle-aged man next to him on the bus didn't look particularly angry, more amused actually. 

"I'm sorry" he stuttered, feeling his cheeks going red. "No worries kid. Been there as a student" said the man returning back to the newspaper he'd been reading.

It was the peak of exam season. The entrance exams to engineering colleges were just getting started. The big daddy of them all- the JEE was first. This is something Tom had been preparing for the last two years. When he'd gone into 11th standard and taken the science stream, his parents had signed him up for coaching classes as well. Not that he'd been particularly interested in either. 

Tom had wanted to become a financial advisor and wanted to take the commerce stream. On the advice of his parents and close family, he reluctantly went into the science stream. "There is greater money and job security down this path" they'd lectured him.

 "And also greater misery" he thought reflecting on the last two years he'd spent learning laws of physics and molecular structures of chemicals he'd much rather just drink to end his misery.

Two years of this delightful life experience culminated today with the JEE exam. And so Tom was headed to his exam centre. It wasn't too far from his home and yet in the sleep deprived state he was in right now, he'd probably have fallen asleep on a mechanical bull. So a bus seat was like a mattress to him.

"Maybe I should've slept early" he thought stifling another yawn. "At least I can sleep easy after the exam" he considered. Not much of a consolation but you take what you get. He'd spent the night revising important formula and concepts they might ask in the MCQs. Ever the perfectionist, he wanted to make sure that he got everything revised up to his liking.

Getting down at his stop, he blinked and squinted adjusting to the blindingly bright summer sun. It was a beautiful day. The one that makes you feel glad to be alive. The blue sky looked beautiful with clouds dotted here and there. A gentle breeze blew and so even though the sun was shining he didn't feel hot at all.

"What amazing weather" he sighed. "The things I could be doing". Instead he'd be spending the day circling in tiny dots on an OMR sheet. Bloody brilliant.

Walking down the street towards his exam centre, he'd decided he'd had enough of trying to fit in one more important thing. "I've studied two years now for this. Another five minutes won't make a difference". Thinking so, he walked along soaking in the lovely weather. 

As he walked along truly immersed in the moment, he noticed a crowd gathering up ahead. Something was clearly wrong. As he moved closer, he noticed a man lying on the road. He was lying unconscious on the pavement, bleeding profusely. 

"What happened?" he said turning to a bystander.
"A car came through and went straight through this guy. Seemed drunk to me" stated a kid close to his own age.
"At 10 in the morning?" Tom asked incredulous.
"Looks that way" the kid replied shrugging. "Anyway, this man here was catapulted off his bike and thrown into the air. He had quite a rough landing". 
"How long has it been?" Tom asked.
"About a half hour I guess".
"And no one has tried to help him?" Tom asked quietly his attention focused on the numerous people who'd taken out their mobiles and were filming the man lying on the road.
"Someone just called an ambulance. It's on the way" the kid replied.
"He'll be dead by then" Tom replied pushing his way through the crowd ahead.

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His memory took him back three years. He remembered the day as if it had been yesterday. It was a Friday night. Having come back from school in the afternoon, he'd spent his time eating chips, drinking cola and playing FIFA. All in all, the most perfect Friday ever. He remembered the phone ringing and his dad answering. He thought nothing of it. 

Halfway through a game, he turned around to ask his dad who it had been and saw his dad was still on the phone. He was speaking in hushed tones and Tom instantly knew something was wrong. There was a look in his dad's eyes that he remembered clearly. Confused, lost, shocked and a deep sense of grief. 

"What's wrong dad?" he asked as his dad kept the phone down. 
"Your uncle James, he- he's no more" his dad said, voice trembling.

For a moment he felt numb as his mind tried to make sense of the bomb that had just been dropped on him. He felt his heart sink and all life drain away.

The days that followed were a blur. Tom hardly remembered anything at all. All he remembered was a feeling of deep grief. His uncle James had always been his favourite. They shared a bond closer than that of an uncle and nephew. He was more like an older brother to him. He'd always backed Tom and had taught him to believe in himself and his strengths no matter what the world had to say about it.

Tom remembered when he'd wanted to pursue dance classes when he was younger. Everyone had told him that it was a waste of time. His uncle James was the only one who stood up for him. He convinced Tom's dad to at least let Tom try it out. As time went on his interest faded, yet he always remembered how his uncle had stood up for him. There was a level of respect and love between the two that could not be compared.

The grief soon came to pass. And it was replaced with a red-hot rage. The details of the accident made his blood boil. His uncle James had been on his way home from work that evening when he'd been rear-ended by another car. He spun out of control and hit a divider. 

The maniac who'd done it had driven off and no one there had been able to see his license plate. And yet it was the next part that made Tom tremble in anger. For the next hour cars, bikes and people had passed by. Not a single person stopped to help nor did anyone call an ambulance. 

The people who had stopped, Tom wished to slit their throats in their sleep. You see, instead of trying to help or calling an ambulance, they'd formed a crowd around the accident site and had taken out their phones and begun recording videos. When he first came upon one of the recorded videos in one of his WhatsApp group forwards, he'd thrown his phone at the wall and screamed in rage. Looking back those were dark times for him indeed and yet he never felt ashamed or guilty about how he'd reacted. 

All these years later, the anger still simmered beneath Tom's calm surface. He'd wondered how everyone had just passed on by without helping. Looking to the internet for answers he'd learnt of a phenomenon called the 'Bystander Effect'. 

Simply what it said was that individuals are less likely to help someone in need when there are other people around. The more the number of people around, the less likely someone comes forward to help. This followed something called diffused responsibility, where everyone thinks that since there are so many people, someone else will come forward to help. What ends up happening is that no one comes forward to help, assuming someone else will help from the crowd of people.

Fine. No one came to help. But what about the monsters who'd been so inhuman that they'd stood, watched and recorded another person bleed out in front of them. There was no excuse for something so horrific. Those people deserved to burn in hell.

He'd vowed to himself that day, that he'd never let something like that happen if he was around. 

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Pushing his way through the front of the crowd, Tom finally reached the man lying on the road. He seemed to be in his mid-twenties. His body lay crumpled and he had a deep gash on his forehead. He was bleeding profusely and there was a pool of blood where he was lying. His broken helmet had been thrown to the side. "Cheap quality helmet?" he pondered. Or had he really been tossed up like a pancake as the kid had said.

Either way, at the rate he was bleeding there'd be no way he'd survive if they waited for the ambulance to get there. 

Looking over the man, he pointed to a bystander. "You in the black shirt" he called, "Stop a taxi, so I can get this man to the hospital. He won't be able to hold out if we wait for an ambulance". 
"And you", he said pointing to a bespectacled youth to his right, "get me some bandages or gauze from any shop nearby". When the teenager hesitated, Tom added "I'll pay you for it. Just get it quick". The youth met his gaze, nodded and sprinted away.

Tom had learnt that to get help in such situations you had to be very specific on asking a particular person to do something. A statement like "someone stop a taxi", would do no good as the notion of diffused responsibility would take over again. By being clear that you were assigning a certain person with the responsibility of that task, action happened quickly and effectively. To their credit, both of them had moved immediately without much hesitation. He'd been expecting much more resistance on their part and a greater effort on his part.

Kneeling down next to the man, Tom reached out for his limp wrist. There was a pulse, very weak, but present. Understandable, he'd lost a lot of blood. There didn't seem to be any damage to his neck and spine. Just a case of his head hitting the pavement. Even so it'd be best to show caution when moving him, Tom concluded.

The bespectacled youth came running back with the bandages. Panting heavily, he handed over the bandages to Tom. "When I told the shopkeeper it was for an accident victim, he just handed it over to me and told me to run back".

"Hmm. So humanity still exists. Good to know" thought Tom.

Tom had taken a first aid course after he'd gotten over the grief of his uncle's death. He'd already been forced to use those skills and had saved the life of a middle-aged man using CPR. The immense gratitude and goodwill he received was more than worth the effort he'd put into learning those skills. The man still sent him sweets on Diwali.

Unwinding the bandages, he wrapped it around the man's head. A taxi had arrived as well thanks to his bystander friend's efforts. People came willingly now to help the man into the taxi. "Be gentle." Tom said. "Make sure you don't make any sudden movements". They made him lie down in the backseat. 

"Let's go." Tom said turning to the taxi driver. "Nearest hospital". The taxi driver was a burly looking man with a pot-belly and walrus moustache. He was chewing paan. "Oh sir ji. What happened to him?" the driver said pulling the taxi out onto the main road. 
"Traffic accident" Tom replied simply,
"Someone hit him and drove away".
"These are bad times sir ji", replied the driver shaking his head. "Almost every other day I hear about a hit and run case".
"Bad times indeed" Tom agreed. "But we have good people like you who stopped to help".
"Oh sir ji. At the end of the day it's up to us help out in any way possible. We can't help everyone. But if we all help out the people around us, the world will be a better place than before".
"I couldn't agree more" said Tom nodding.

The man was still bleeding but the bandages had managed to stem the flow of blood a little bit. Tom had managed to get some ID from the man's bag. "Harsh Soni, junior web developer, Cintrex technologies" he read off his employee card. On the flip side, he saw some emergency contact details. 
"Rajiv Soni" he read. "Must be his dad or brother I guess" Tom thought. I should inform them.

"Which hospital are we headed to?" Tom asked the taxi driver.
"BNS Hospital sir ji" replied the taxi driver. "Quite a big hospital with good facilities".
"And how long till we reach?" asked Tom.
"Oh sir ji almost there. Just 5 minutes" replied the driver.

Tom called the number given. No response. He tried again. No luck. "Must be on silent or something" Tom thought.

They'd reached the hospital. The driver had stopped near the entrance. "Wait here", Tom instructed the driver as he sprinted inside. Inside he saw a ward boy near the reception. "Hey, help me out" Tom called. "There's a man injured in an accident outside". The ward boy looked Tom over twice, apparently trying to decide if he had enough money to pay the fees. 

"I have money" Tom said, voice devoid of all emotion. The ward boy seemed convinced. "Just get me a stretcher and help the man out. He's gonna bleed to death otherwise" he finished bluntly. 

The ward boy and Tom rushed out to the waiting taxi with a stretcher in tow. They quickly loaded Harsh onto the stretcher and wheeled him into the operation theatre. "Nothing more to do now", thought Tom sitting down on the bench. 

He tried calling Harsh's relative Rajiv again. "Third time's the charm" he sat thinking. And sure enough it was. 

"Hello. Rajiv?" Tom asked.
"Yes" replied a hoarse voice, "Who is this?".
"I'm Tom. I'm afraid Harsh has been involved in a road accident. He's currently undergoing an operation at BNS hospital." 
There was a long pause on the other end as the information seeped through. Finally the hoarse voice replied back "Is he going to be okay?".
"I'm not sure" replied Tom truthfully. "I sure hope so".
"I am on my way" Rajiv replied, the worry clearly heard in his voice. "Please text me the address".
"Will do" Tom said.

Tom finally remembered that he had an exam to give. "Too late" he thought, looking at his mobile. It was 11:02. He remembered how strict they were about letting people in. Even a minute later and you'd be barred from entering. 

"This was more important anyway" he thought. It'd all be worth it if Harsh survived. He did feel a slight twinge of regret though. That was his competitive side coming through. He wanted to see how good he was at these topics after giving up two years of his life learning all about them.

An hour became two. Harsh's father Rajiv arrived sometime in between. He was a man in his 50s with grey hair. He was very thin and the best way to describe him would be to say that he looked like a grasshopper. His face clearly showed the anxiety he was feeling. And the sense of helplessness. He thanked Tom profusely when he met him. "Without you son, my Harsh might already be no more" he'd told Tom tears in his eyes. 

Now Rajiv was pacing up and down the hallway. Tom lay slumped against the bench. He could've gone home if he'd wanted but now that he'd skipped the exam, he wanted to stay here and keep Rajiv company. 

Finally after what seemed an eternity, the red light on the operation theatre turned off. Tom stood up and Rajiv raced to the door. The doctor came out. "The operation is successful" he said smiling. "Your boy will live. He'd lost a lot of blood but he should be okay now. Thank goodness you got him here in time. Another half an hour and we would've lost him."

As the doctor went away, Rajiv turned to Tom. "Thank you" he said. "I'm forever in your debt".
"It was the right thing to do" Tom replied. "I'd lost my uncle in an accident a few years ago. I just wanted to make sure no one else went through the pain of an avoidable death".

Tom made his way home after receiving another round of heartfelt thanks from Rajiv. "I'll keep in touch. Keep me posted on how Harsh recovers". Tom said waving goodbye.

As he made his way home, he wondered how he'd break the news to his parents. The fact that he'd ditched the exam and saved someone's life was a great thing indeed. But he'd have to wait another year now for the opportunity to get into the top colleges. Not that he wanted to of course. But what other choice did he have?

Reaching home, he rang the bell. "Huh. I'm coming back at exactly the right time" Tom thought. To anyone else it looked like he was coming back after giving the exam.

"So how did it go champ?" his beaming dad asked as he opened the door. "I've got the latest answer key from chu-tier tutorial".
"Yeah dad, it didn't go well at all. Or maybe I should say it didn't go at all". Tom replied.
"Huh?" his dad replied confused. His mom had come outside as well.

Tom explained everything that had happened. He expected his parents to reprimand him or at least tell him that he should've looked out for himself. They listened calmly and when he finished they got up and hugged him. "Son, not many would do what you did today with so much on the line. We're proud of you" his dad said. "And your uncle would be too" his mom said smiling.

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The months that followed were a time of some real soul-searching for Tom. With the fixed path that had been decided for him years ago suddenly removed, Tom had a lot of options available to him. He could wait a year and give the exam next year. That's what his parents wanted. Tom decided to use this time to explore other avenues. He took up a part-time job at a retail store as a salesman. More than anything, it fine-tuned his people skills to the next level. As well as his patience. The pay was underwhelming to say the least. But this was more of a commission-based gig anyway. His mornings were spent at the store and this left his evenings free to pursue other things. He was doing a finance course online. Might as well begin somewhere he'd thought. 

One evening he received a call from an unknown number. "Stupid scammers, I don't want a credit card" Tom thought. 
"Hello, is this Tom?" said the voice on the other end.
"Yeah.. Who is this?" Tom asked.
"Hey, you probably don't remember my name. I'm Harsh, the guy you saved that day".
"Hey man, how are you doing?" Tom asked.
"I'm alive. That's more than good enough for me" Harsh replied laughing. "The doctor has advised me bed rest since it was a head injury. I have some splitting headaches at times." Harsh said. "I feel fine for the most part though".
"That's good to hear" remarked Tom smiling.
"Yeah. Anyway I just wanted to thank you for everything you did for me that day. I am lucky I'm still alive. And it's all thanks to you".
"Hey that's okay man. It would've been wrong to leave you just lying there" Tom replied solemnly. "I'm just glad everything turned out all right".

"So I heard from my dad that you're interested in the field of finance?" Harsh asked.
"Uh.. yeah.. I am" said Tom trying to remember when he'd mentioned it to Rajiv.
"If you're interested, I have a friend working as a personal financial advisor. I could put in a word for you, since he's looking for an intern. It is a paid internship as well" Harsh said.

It was like someone had come up with a dream proposal customized just for him. "Wow. That sounds so awesome. I'd love to do that" Tom replied grinning.
"Well then, that's that" said Harsh. "I'll send you the details".
"Take care".
"You too".

Tom kept the phone down grinning. He'd helped Harsh expecting nothing in return and yet it was as if the universe had aligned to reward his good will.

And so ended the saga of what might have been a promising life gone awry,
But was now a touching and heart-warming story.