Boy oh boy

I was walking around last evening and I saw an old man fallen on the ground, obviously not conscious or awake. There were two men standing around him, so although my first instinct was to react in some way, I kept walking by. Went past him. Old man. Those two men didn't seem to be doing anything. Just looking down at him.

The voice in my head nagged saying, 'Yea, you're just like the others. Walking past, doing nothing.' And I thought the old man must have someone who will want to know where he is - who will come to take him home. I turned around, went back, and asked the security guard standing next to him if he knew what had happened. The security guard was very disappointing. (A mall like Hyderabad Central should have better trained and more responsive / responsible security people.) He didn't look me in the eye and muttered something to himself. The second man was happy to talk to me. He gave me a bright smile and said, 'Oh, he's had a lot of alcohol. He'll wake up in a bit and go home by himself.'

I obviously had to do something - just that I had no idea what. I asked if they'd tried sprinkling some water at him. The smiling man smiled and said 'Yes, yes.'

I sat down and tried to shake him. He looked fairly decently dressed. Not like a homeless person. It was hot as hell. Not a nice place to be. No response though, I could barely shake him at all. But, just me being there, and doing something got a crowd gathering. People were looking to see what I was doing, not as much as what was wrong with the old man. I was soon going to run out of ideas - no one seemed to want to check if he had a phone or a wallet.

Super lucky for me though, an ambulance was stuck in traffic right there, (must have been there since before I stopped) but the attention I was getting caught theirs too and they turned to the side and came over. It was EMRI's emergency service, and they pulled over and got a bit of spirit to hold under his nose and revive him. And it worked. By now, a large crowd had gathered and kept growing. I was fairly annoyed, and as the man seemed to be in safer hands now, I left.

Makes me wonder about many things. Anyway.

PS: It's hot as hell today in Hyderabad. I was out all day doing my entrance test to FTII. Which went well, thanks. I had two hours to kill in between two tests, and I went off to a book store and read 70% of an Enid Blyton Famous Five story. Hated to leave it incomplete.

PPS: Saw Narnia last week. Fairly nice, but its feel was so similar to the Lord of the Rings movies, that it dulled it a bit for me. Now waiting to see Indiana Jones!

PPPS: Been on Twitter a lot, and so less blogging. And of course, India Daily Photo.

And Mob Wars.