Walnuts From Kashmir, by Sabir Sayed, Mumbai

Born, raised, and currently living in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Sabir is working for the cause of humanity so as to please the CREATOR.

Just a few weeks ago, I got a call from a guy from Kashmir. 

He said, “Sir, I am back in Mumbai, and I have some walnuts for you.” 

The sound of his voice took me into a flashback to last March, when so many migrants were stranded here, facing acute food shortage.

One of the biggest Bollywood stars, moved by their plight, vowed to send these migrants back to their homes in Uttar Pradesh. The Managing Director of this Big Bollywood Star happens to be a close friend of mine. At his request, I got to work and started the registration for the migrants. 

All was set, and the train was allotted to us by government authorities. But hopes were shattered when I received a call from the railway, informing me that the train had been cancelled. I was in a fix, not able to think of what to do, or what to tell those 1,600 migrants. 

The Big Bollywood Star was apprised of the situation. Without a second thought, he instructed us to send all the migrants in airplanes. To my delight, I immediately hired a travel agency and booked eight charter flights in a day. When I was at the airport to see them off, I noticed a young Kashmiri guy sitting on the ground with his wife and child. 

I went to him and asked, “What are you doing at the airport, during this pandemic?”

He said that due to a low count of passengers, his flight back home to Jammu had been cancelled. 

He was in tears when he told me, “I have no money left.” 

His wife stood up, also in tears, and said that she was four months pregnant. 

Words cannot express what I went through, trying to imagine their pain and agony. I told them not to worry. I arranged for their tickets from Mumbai to Delhi, and then from Delhi to Jammu, as no direct flights were available for Jammu. They reached home safely, to my relief.

When he called me six months later, upon his return to Mumbai in October, I was so touched. 

I didn’t want him to face any further travel difficulties, though, so I said, “Please, don’t take the trouble to come to me, as the trains are still not functioning, and getting around in the city is too difficult.”

I thanked him and requested that he share those walnuts with the needy and poor.

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(This story was prepared for an “Imagine Another World” online storytelling workshop held November 11, 2020.)

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