On a very rainy July day, I was waiting at Lonawala railway station for my train to Pune. I had reservation in a late evening train but wanted to prepone my journey so I went at the reservation counter where I saw two elderly females of other country trying to talk to the clerk at the counter. Initially I just went about my way and started enquiring the clerk about my situation. While I was talking to the clerk, I understood that both the females needed help as they didn’t know the local language and the few people at the reservation counter did not understand/speak English. One of the females knew a little bit of English but the other one couldn’t speak it. So, I stepped in to help and got to know that both of them were strangers and it was their first visit to India. One was from France and the other one from Poland. One was having a large map of India with her and she just pointed a finger on the map to a place in south India and wanted to know about the trains going to that place. Obviously, the clerk couldn't help her! The other one wanted reservation to Delhi but Lonawala, being a small railway station, not many express trains halt here. The clerk was trying to make her understand that she would have to go to Pune for her train to Delhi.
I did my bit to help those females by translating their queries to the clerk and answering them back. I was present there at that time so could be of some help. There are many people who are keen to explore unknown places but face difficulties because of communication barriers. I feel in India, we should have some facilities at such smaller places of interest where many travellers come to explore so that they have better experiences of the place and go back with pleasant memories!