A Kindness in the Dark

“Sudhesh.”

“What’s the matter? Why are you ruining my morning sleep,” I murmured, looking at the face of Renu, my wife, who was standing by the side of my bed. She is an early riser and exceptionally disciplined in her daily chores. Her day starts with a cup of tea, and more than half of her work is finished before I leave my bed.

 

“Kallu is not coming today. You have to bring milk from the store.”

 

“What? How do you know?”

 

“His younger son had been here in the early morning to inform us. He was saying that Vijay had threatened Kallu to discontinue supplying milk to our locality for a few days as a punishment for his alleged involvement in mixing water in the milk.”

 

“What’s this?” I cursed Vijay under my breath and left for the booth. My friend Ajit was coming to see us on that day after so many months, and I wasn’t going to deprive him of a cup of hot coffee he was so fond of. He is my old friend. We had graduated from the same college. Later, he pursued his studies in law and became a successful lawyer in the city. I couldn’t leave my place under some compulsion, but the warmth of our friendship remained unaffected.

 

Vijay was a terror in our locality. People were used to changing their paths to avoid him. He was an embodiment of all evils in the opinion of the people. I didn’t have a different opinion about him.

 

It was a bad start. By the evening, a more serious problem gripped the area. A curfew was imposed due to the disturbance in our small town. My grandmother has been suffering from cardiac problems, and suddenly, in the middle of the night, she started having trouble breathing. 

 

After three attempts, the doctor picked up the call and asked me, “What’s the emergency?”

 

“Doctor, it’s about grandmother. She is struggling with her breathing. I have given her your prescribed medicine, but it’s not working.”

 

After asking me a lot of questions, he said, “I have messaged you the name of a new medicine. Give it to her quickly, otherwise it may be fatal.”

 

I asked Renu to take care of my grandmother and rushed out in the darkness of the night towards the only medicine shop in our lane, keeping my fear of being caught for defying the curfew aside.

 

My repeated knocking on the door of the chemist went unanswered. I had never been so helpless in my life. The life of my grandmother was at stake, and the realisation of the fact had been unsettling me. I prayed to God for mercy and knocked on the door once again with the hope that the chemist might respond and open the door for me, but there was no such indication. It was a moonless night. I looked up at the sky and my heart sank to see that there wasn’t a single star twinkling.

 

Suddenly, Vijay appeared from nowhere. “What’s the matter? Why are you here?” he asked me.

 

I hesitated but narrated my ordeal to him.

 

“Okay. Just wait,” he said to me, and knocked on the door of the chemist vigorously.

 

Fearing that the door might come out of its hinges, he opened the door immediately, muttering that he couldn’t give medicine to anyone following the curfew in the town.

 

But when he saw Vijay, his tone changed, “Vijay Babu, please pardon me. I’m scared. How can I defy the curfew?”

 

Vijay shouted at him, ”You have no way out. If you don’t act according to what I have asked, your life will be hell.”

 

The chemist didn’t say a word further. He just handed me the medicine and went back to the closed door. 

 

Vijay came to me and said, “Go home and give her medicine urgently.”

 

I left home showered in his kindness and gratitude. No other word except the curses I had ever expressed for him, but he read my helplessness and rescued me from drowning in the dark river of self-pity. It was pinching me that my eyes couldn’t see the golden rays of light silently travelling through the dark tunnel. His unselfishness surprised and struck me in such a way that I forgot to thank him for the favour. 

 

That was not an ordinary night; it was a night that changed my perception of looking at people. It was a lesson to me that the greatness of invisible light is often revealed to us in the darkest of our hours.