Somewhere between the clouds, time travelled back by a few hours, the brown land was whited by snow, and rupees lost its value and only dollars mattered. Yes, a few days ago, I landed back in Canada after a break of two months in India. After getting down the flight, I walked along with other passengers towards the belt to pick my baggage.
A little girl was walking with her mother just in front of me. On our way to the baggage belt, there was an escalator to climb up. I heard the woman saying to her little daughter, “Hold my hand,” and with these words, she placed her feet on the escalator, but the little girl looked at the moving steps of the escalator instead of looking at her mother’s hand extended towards her, and she was suddenly panicked. She stopped there while her mother was already moving up, away from her. The woman was worried as there was a crowd coming from the back which would swallow her daughter in few seconds, and there was no point in stepping down as the escalator was moving up at a fast pace. Out of worry, she repeatedly insisted her daughter to place her feet on the escalator, but the little girl kept looking down, being afraid to make that first step.
That was when I stepped in the escalator. Now, the little girl was behind me and her mother was in front of me. I turned at the little girl and extended my hand towards her, and for that one second, she didn’t look down at the scary step but at my assuring smile. At once, she held my hand and placed her foot on the first step of the escalator. The girl run to her mother to be embraced by her. With a sense of relief, the woman turned back and said thanks.
For few minutes, I kept thinking most of us are like this, when an issue comes, we keep looking down at the problem like she looked at the moving steps rather than looking at the solution which here was a hand that offered support. It might have all happened within a minute or so, but if I look at it closer, it was not just a moment of a child’s fear or a moment of a mother’s concern, it was a moment of faith in taking the first step.
-Noel P T
