^{Tea stall owner Lakshmi plays a Good Samaritan}

Patna: On Ashtami, tea vendor Lakshmi (35) on Beer Chand Patel Marg pulled out Mukesh Sah (40) from the teeth of a ‘nasha khurani gang’ on the train he was travelling by to Patna on way to his Sihaul village in Saharsa district on Sunday.
The gang members administer sedatives to unsuspecting train passengers, normally in the general compartment, and rob the victim of his or her belongings.If the sedative is powerful, the victim might die, but most often, he or she is left unconscious for a long duration, good for nothing. Sah was one such victim and he meandered through the city roads from Patna Junction before Lakshmi saw and took care of him.
At around 11am, Sah fully drenched in drizzle, stumbled and fell on the road in front of Lakshmi‘s tea stall. “The sedative had reduced him to a mere lump of unstable flesh and bones. He could not stand and had no sense of memory left in him,” said Lakshmi, who, by her own admission and on account of local witnesses, has saved three persons from near fatal chance accidents in the last five years. One poor fellow, a diabetic and in high fever from Sitamarhi had collapsed near her tea stall last year; a roving woman fruit seller from Punaichak (Patna) had been knocked down by a speeding biker near her stall five years ago and, now on Sunday, it was Sah.
“The ‘nasha khurani gang’ had administered sedatives to Sah. They also robbed him off all his belongings. The only thing left with him was the rickety mobile phone. Because it was old, partly damaged and useless, the gangsters had spared it,” said Lakshmi, a resident of Adalatganj Driver Tola.
She and the local boys made Sah lie under a nearby shed. They also made him change into dry clothes she offered. But it was the mobile phone of Sah that helped Lakshmi, who took out its sim card and set it in her own cellphone and picked up one of the numbers and called the person at the other end. The man turned out to be Sah’s brother-in-law, who was informed about the incident.
Sah’s relative informed one Ram Vilas from the same Sihaul village who lived in a private lodge near Bazar Samiti and attended coaching classes.
When this correspondent met Ram Vilas, he was putting the wet clothes of Sah in the bag that he had brought, while Lakshmi asked Sah, now regaining consciousness, if he needed water, biscuit and tea. Sah could only say ‘yes’, looking up at his benefactor and saviour with wistful eyes.