Waiting for the wheelchair in New York

It seems there is a special punishment for requesting a wheelchair. You have to wait on the plane. Everybody else exits first. At JFK Airport, over three hundred passengers had to disembark. The stewardess said to me, “You must wait until the end. Your wheelchair has not come.”

Sandesh and I were waiting and waiting. Everybody passed by. Finally a large lady from Guyana came with the wheelchair. According to her, I was already so heavy, so she did not allow me to put my little suitcase on the wheelchair. I also had one small carry-on bag. Sandesh asked if he could replace her, but she would not permit Sandesh to push the wheelchair because she had to do her job.

Then we had another problem: she was so slow! I felt miserable for her. She was a very nice lady, but she was not suited for that job. I asked her, “Why are there no men here?”

She said, “Why do you need them?”

From:Sri Chinmoy,Sri Chinmoy in Russia, Agni Press, 2001
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/scr