Italian Garden, Gwalior

As I was on my way to see the Jai Vilas Palace, I was taken aback when an elderly woman walking on the footpath a few metres away from me suddenly fell down unconscious!

There was a young lad of about ten years with her. Since I was the closest to them at that time, I was among the first few to run to her rescue and together with another person who appeared there the next instant, moved her aside to a safer place away from the roadside traffic.

In no time a crowd collected and there was traffic disruption. Then someone pulled out a water bottle and an attempt was made to revive the woman. The locals questioned the little boy and what I gathered then was that the woman had come from another city by train to visit relatives in Gwalior and their bag was stolen! In that stolen bag was her money and the address of her relatives.

The woman regained consciousness in a little while. At this time, a girl who appeared to have leadership qualities happened to reach there, came forward and she seemed to want to take charge. At first I thought she was a journalist. Then I asked her if she was a local and when she answered in the affirmative, I quickly briefed her on what happened, and told her I had to move on as I was a tourist there.

I had only that evening to check out the Italian Garden and the Jai Vilas Palace in addition to attending the ‘sound and light show’ as I wrote about it here. I then rushed from that place but not before discreetly shoving a couple of notes in the hands of the young lad. I think of them sometimes and hope that they succeeded in finding their relatives in Gwalior.

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