She called me frantically! "Can you meet me today?, I want to talk to you", her voice shivered. I said an immediate 'yes'. We decided to meet in a busy coffee shop in Chennai.
I entered the coffee shop and waited for her. She came in a little late. Very unlike her! We finished our coffee and then she started the conversation. "Sam, a man is willing to take care of my treatment bills; He is willing to give me a job and also is asking me to move into the office provided accommodation!", her voice not radiating any sense of excitement! "Oh great ka, what is bothering you then?" I asked her.
She had cancer! She was poor and was living off friends! She had lost her father quite early in life. The mother had her own problems to deal with and left her. She was not thirty yet!
My reply made no sense to her! I was too naive. "Sam, he is asking me to move into the office provided", she said again. It hit me hard. I kept quiet. "My treatment will be costly sam; I won't be able to afford it", said she. I knew it all too well. "What shall I do sam?" Came the inevitable question. She knew that we could also not afford that kind of money.
What would have I done in her place! What if somebody had threatened me with life, to do something which I would not normally do? or what if somebody promises me a million dollar to manipulate official documents? Okay, money is not an attraction! What if they promise me the post of the member of the parliament. Just do it once, was the offer! Will I agree? Or worse, what if they threaten my wife's life with that?
The phone rang the next day. It was her again. "Sam, I will be honest with you; The offer was tempting. But I decided to say 'NO'. I decided to die instead". I could sense tears in her eyes. I kept quiet. Words deserted me.
The moral courage to say 'NO' at the face of extreme adversity! I'm not here to preach moral standards; For I don't qualify for that. But to draw a line, and to stand within that line, even if the world tries to push you over needs incredible courage. And for that, I bow down.
She died five years ago today! Would she have lived had she said 'Yes' then? I don't know. Maybe she was not practical enough in the eyes of the world. But that day, she taught me a lesson for life.
"Sam, If you decide to draw a moral line, don't step on it, ever and for whatever", I could hear her loud and clear.
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