DSP tracks down vegetable vendor whose act of kindness 14 years ago he never forgot

Khan saluted Patel, who broke into a smile and asked, “Mereko pehchante ho (do you remember me?).”

He replied, “Bilkul achi tarah se, sir. Aap sabzi lene aate the (I remember you well, sir. You would come to take vegetables).”

Both men hugged each other, rekindling a bond forged a long time ago, when Khan’s random act of kindness helped Patel, who was at the time a struggling engineering student in Bhopal.

Now posted in Gwalior’s Behat division, Patel told The Indian Express, “I am the first graduate in my family of 120 people in Panna. I am also the first police officer in my family. I went to Bhopal to study engineering against all odds, and then prepared for the MP Public Service Commission. There were days when I did not have money to buy food. Khan was kind enough to feed me tomatoes and baingan. He has a heart of gold.”

Khan, who was busy catering to customers in Bhopal’s Apsara Talkies area, told The Indian Express, “I got scared when the police van came. But when I saw Patel, I found a long lost friend. I sold vegetables to thousands of people – nobody remembers my face, they move on. But Patel came and met me. I had followed him on social media and was proud of the officer he had become. I never knew he would meet me. He gave me a box of sweets and some cash. He remembers his roots, remembers me. This was a dream come true.”

Both men, who are the same age – 33 – first met in 2009-10 when Patel moved out of his village of Devgaon in Panna. His father was a craftsman while most of his family members worked as local postmen. Patel’s elder sister got married when she was young, and now wants to pursue B.Com inspired by her brother.

“I used to study under a kerosene lamp and did not have money for food at times. I did odd jobs for a living. That’s when I became friends with Khan,” he recalled.

Khan, who has five brothers and three sisters, comes from a poor family in Bhopal. His brothers sell vegetables and drive autos while his sisters are married. Khan and Patel would talk to each other every day.

“He was just like me – a poor man. We understood each other. I gave him vegetables at times; it’s not a big deal. Why should I earn money by keeping a poor boy hungry? There were many students I gave free vegetables to. Patel would even help me with my work at times,” Khan said.

In time, Patel completed his engineering course but could not land a job. He returned to his village and started working as a forest guard in Panna. He kept studying to get into the police force and cracked the MPPSC in 2017.

He served as DSP in Betul and Niwari before shifting to Gwalior. He also managed to garner a substantial following on social media – around 2.4 million followers on Instagram – by sharing his life policing rural districts in MP, sharing poems with farmers, talking about the struggle of the poor in the Hindi belt, and meeting students from poor families, gifting them school uniforms and bags. But the memory of Khan lingered in his mind. “I tried to meet him all these years but was never posted in Bhopal. During a four-day training programme, I finally saw him in the same place where he was 14 years ago,” Patel said.