Was It Unfair ?

"Have you ever wondered what our lives could have been if I had not met you?", I asked him.

He smiled and said, " I don’t regret it ………… ".

We both looked at each other, smiled and then I got back to my job.

About a year ago, I had no job, no income, no life at all. I was in a situation where I could have begged on the streets for a bite of food. My wife and children starved in our small makeshift tent next to the railway station, while I decided to do the simplest thing in life - 'jump in front of a rapidly-moving express train'. Having been thrown out of the single room in the chawl for not paying the rent, my family and I were living here for 3 months now. Life was tough; Death was easy!

While I slept on the isolated patch over the railway track, waiting for the next train to swoop in, I saw him running towards me. Then I heard some people screaming "Catch Him... Catch Him".

"Oh, Dear God! Please ask them to leave me alone. I have made up my mind and now I do not want a handful of random strangers to dissuade me", I begged the almighty.

'He' was the first person to come to my nearest vicinity. He was running vigorously towards me with an expression I could not fathom. Suddenly I noticed a lot of blood on his white shirt and in no time, I could see the people running behind him. As these people shrieked some unclear words, from the other end of the railway track, I heard the siren of a super-fast express coming towards us. “This was it” I thought and calmly closed my eyes to visualize my little children in my final minute. But these idiots on the other end were running swiftly towards me, their voices heavily intruding on the inner peace which I wanted at this moment. I could not ignore them anymore. I turned around partially sitting up and saw ‘him’ just a few meters away from me. But to my surprise, he wasn’t even looking at me. In full swing, he was running next to the railway track in the direction of the train. The blood on his shirt looked ghastly and his sweat ran down his entire body. Apparently, he had been running for quite some time now. I could hear him breathe heavily as he passed the spot where I lay. That’s when I realized, there were Policemen chasing him and he had made his way to the train tracks, most probably in an attempt to escape. Maybe, he might be planning to quickly jump on some train or so …. I wondered, having completely forgotten about the suicide. Now the sight of the Policemen gave me chills as I knew they are not here to rescue me, instead, I could get beaten up or even arrested for what I was about to do. But suddenly, the so-called convict turned around and noticed me. He had run substantially across from the spot where I was, but he somehow stopped. With the fast train rushing towards us, he had guessed my intentions and to my sheer surprise, he came back and started pulling me off the train tracks. “No, you cannot do this. I will not let you die”, he shouted at me while pulling my body halfway away from the iron slabs of the track. I am a man with a very heavy build, somewhat 6 feet tall and stout; I could imagine how hard it was for him, but he did not give up. “I will not let you sacrifice your life; I know the worth of it!”. He just managed to pull me aside, when the train passed beside us, without hurting either of us. Its impact and the loud noise were too much and left both of us shivering for some time.

The train was gone; I looked at him curiously, “Who are you?” I asked, “you saved my life for what? I … I have nothing ……” I fumbled as I was trying to explain my situation to him. But there was no time. The police were right behind us now.

“Hands up”, a policeman shouted. Ironically, we both put our hands up in the air. Two policemen rushed towards ‘him’ and held him by his collar. They started dragging him, while another officer came to me and hit me hard in the face.

“Finally, we caught you, you murderer! You think you are too smart to escape!” the cop holding ‘him’ said while the one hitting me was extremely angry about my action. “Useless people like you, you all just waste our time…..” he was blurting to me in rage. But all I could think was that he, ‘the murderer’ who had just killed someone, had fresh blood on him, stopped just to save my life, and in the process got arrested himself. I did not know what to make of the whole situation. He wanted to live, while I wanted to die, but here I am, forced to live my fateful life again, whereas he is being handcuffed and taken to jail.

But fate had some other plan for me. The police put me too in their van and took me to the police station for my suicide attempt. He and I sat in front of one another. There was no time or situation to talk, but our eyes spoke. I did not know whether I should thank him or curse him, whereas he did not seem to know if he should be happy to save me or hold me responsible for his arrest. I did wish to know his back story and under what circumstances he had murdered someone, but it was not the right time.

I do not know what happened to him later, but I was chided and heavily condemned by the Senior Inspector at the police station for what I had done. He was not going to put me behind the bars, but he wanted to ensure this doesn’t happen again. He tried to console me instead and tried to show me the brighter side of life. I also openly spoke about my financial problems with him, told him about having no job, no food, my children starving and my family suffering.

It has been a year and a half now. I am working in the district jail. The Senior Inspector Sahab was kind enough to recommend me for a position here and help me rebuild my life. I get paid enough to provide my family with the basics. We are happy now with whatever we are getting and do not sleep hungry anymore.

But my job disheartens me. I work here in a role that suits my stature and my physique. I am the hangman or the ‘Jallad’ as they call it here. I pull the levers to the machinery which is used to execute the inmates as they are hanged to death. But it is my job, and I do it well. But that day, my recovered heart shattered for life when I saw him again after so long.

“You have been on death row?” I couldn’t hold back a single tear anymore. “This is so unfair! Life is unfair, my friend. Your decision was wrong. You should not have saved me that day”, I cried as I spoke.

“I don’t regret it”, he said, “I took a life, I had to save a life. I am even with my life now. I shall die in peace today. Hope you live happily ever after”.

After 10 minutes, I pulled the lever to his death.