Montreal needs
Alfreds!

When we entered Montreal, the bus operator announced that the downtown area surrounding the bus stop was closed to traffic. That meant delayed arrival for more than one hour. When we came out there was no taxi nearby. My daughter, a McGill student who had come to receive me, called a taxi; the other side assured that the taxi would be coming. However, we quickly understood that there was no way that the taxi could reach us. Anyway, we dragged our heavy suitcases to the trafficable point.

A man passed by us, looking at us with a pleasant smile, and when he came back after receiving his guest, with a sympathetic posture, he told us that it would be difficult for us to get a taxi. In the same breath, he asked my daughter where we wanted to go. She told him the address; he said, “Well, I am parked around the corner, if you can walk to my car I could then drop you off at your place.” I said to him, “My luggage is too heavy, are you sure that your car can accommodate all of us?” He gave a positive answer and I struggled with the luggage to the point, which was farther than I expected.

Once settled in the car, he started with a sense of appreciating his own people-friendly policies: “You know, one should help others in difficult times, we rather need to tell the mainstream people of this society how to be sympathetic with other human beings. Yes, they don’t know, we have to demonstrate to them.”

As we proceeded, we found that most of the roads leading to our destination were blocked; he became restless but said, “Don’t worry, we will find our way, we will get to your place for sure.” Meanwhile, he introduced his guest André, and he told his own name as Alfred and asked my daughter’s name. He went on to tell us that he was a sailor, had visited Karachi, Mumbai and many famous cities of the world; that he originally belonged to West Indies and was living in Montreal for a long time and knew each and every street. For solidarity’s sake, I turned to mentioning cricket and Brian Lara, which was the only commonality between Pakistan and West Indies.

Meanwhile, by indirectly addressing my daughter, he enlightened us with his views about the young persons. “Young people should understand that elders advise them because they have a lot of experience; all they want is that their younger lot don’t make the same mistakes they had already made and stay out of trouble. You know, these youngsters say that they wanna make their own mistakes so as to learn their own lessons and gain experience. Okay! When you get into trouble, then, don’t come to us with the demand that we should now get them out of it.” All in all, he emphasized the value of experience and the importance of generational connectivity.

Then, he jumped on some oil-related issue. As I didn’t know the context, I just kept saying “yes” and “yeah.” Still, we couldn’t break through the blockade. His guest was tired (he had travelled in the same bus that I had rode), hungry and hence felt very uncomfortable with the never-ending journey which was supposed to be five minutes long only. André suggested we all should stop at the coffee shop, turned down by Alfred; later he proposed to stop at some restaurant, Alfred again refused and said, “First let’s find the way, then I will take you home and give you two coffees and food, what’s wrong with you, man?”

Another road was blocked. “Hey man, you know this police is stupid, what do they want to establish, they have blocked the whole area. I think all the politicians should get together, round up all the police-persons and just fire them all, I guarantee you the city will be in peace and tranquility.”

Many a times, we offered him the chance to drop us and we would deal with the ordeal ourselves, but he didn’t budge from completing the task he had assigned himself—to help a visitor to the city who had come from the other side of the globe. During the last whole year I was upset about the difficulties my daughter had gone through, and I was so concerned about the insensitivity of McGill’s officials that I was seriously pondering how to counteract such shades of callousness which were reported to me. But Alfred changed it all. After one hour, we reached our residence, thanks to him.

We may differ with the Alfreds of Montreal on their opinion about the youth and their rights, importance of police, views about the city management etc. But they are the people who inherit the values which humanity has created for the collective well-being of all of us. Montreal needs Alfreds.

>> KHADIM HUSSAIN, VISITOR TO MONTREAL

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!

Send your comments, compliments or criticisms to:

Letters to the Editor,
c/o Montreal Mirror,
465 McGill, 3rd Floor
Montreal, Quebec
H2Y 4B4

Letters to the Editor

All letters should include your name, address and daytime phone number.

If you wish to reach someone in particular, here's a list of people involved with the production of the newspaper and this site.