Why not be more responsible?

My wife and me generally love to go for a slow and cautious drive during rains. We decided to do it on last saturday as well, when the clouds seem to open up heavily. Not just a drive, we decided to dine out also, in one of our favourite restaurants, along with the drive. A friend also accompanied us there and we had a nice time with some sumptuous vegetarian food, inspite of the kids not behaving at their best. By now, the rain had started and it was pouring down when we started to drive back home.

We had to pass a fairly big junction with properly working traffic signals and it was about 10'o clock in the night. I am sure it was green for me and it had 3 more seconds to go which is completely good enough to pass through. There came the Qualis, obviously driven by a complete moron who drove across with red for him. I had to apply the brakes quickly and managed to let that felon go. I was now stranded almost exactly at the centre of the junction. I was not in a position to go back and hence released the brake, reduced the gear and went ahead just as the green was about to go off for me. Now, because of that Qualis, a young couple in a bike decided to go ahead and unfortunately, it was my way and my car. There is no way I could have avoided hitting them, but I am proud to say that I made the collision as minor as possible. The pillion girl was down on the road with the guy just managing to hold on to his bike. I crossed the junction, parked the car and got out of the car when my wife shouted at me "don't fight", because people believe that I am known for it. I ran to the spot and lifted the bike and helped him to pull her along to one side of the road where she can sit. The girl was slightly hurt on her leg, but more shocked due the accident and was feeling very hard to stand. The guy was also shocked that he wasn't making too many efforts to make her feel comfortable. I made her sit and bought her a glass of juice and she was feeling alright and they left the scene in about 15 minutes.

By this time, the downpour has only gotten more and I was completely drenched when I came back to my car and noticed a few damages. I had to pacify my wife too who was a bit worried as I had left her and my little son in the car hurriedly. But, when I drove back for the pleasure of driving in the rains, there was nothing that prick me inside as I was absolutely not at fault. This is not just the statement made by anyone who is involved in an accident. Even now, 2 days later, when I rewind and go over it, I still see the green signal on for me. I was only being the human that I should be and helped another human who was in pain and did not bother about the material damage (to me).

More than anything, what hurts me most is the negligence and irresponsibility that is dwelling inside our citizens. Why don't we all respect traffic signals, even if its raining? I make sure that I don't disrespect them, even if someone is honking from behind and I am not a fresh driver - I have been driving for atleast 10 years now. If the Qualis and that biker had some sense of responsibility, they would have waited for me to pass and then went on. Now, the Qualis is gone happily and the girl in the bike had little bruises which, I am sure, she will forget in 2-3 days. Please note that those two were the ones with lesser sense. For the responsibility and cautiousness, I am forced to spend a few bucks to set my car right. I, honestly, don't care about spending that money. But, I would be greatly relieved, even if one person decides to be a human and also not disrespect traffic rules from the time he reads this. Its not just about seeing movies with social messages and appreciating them. Its about how we take it into real life, atleast some of them.

Long live military hospital!

Ever since I moved out of Trichy, my cricketing activities have diminished - playing & umpiring. This, inspite of me spending most of my career till date very close to cricket. I have been longing to play cricket atleast during the weekends - but haven't found out good company and/or good grounds. Last week, I managed to find a group of friends who play cricket on saturdays and decided to try playing with them. Hence, I joined them to play, early last saturday at a ground adjacent to the military hospital near Nandambakkam. More than the cricket, I was pained by another act which has really disturbed me for the past 3-4 days and I hope that someone really sets these stupid things right in our country, very soon.

We started playing and we had almost finished an innings when one guy turned up late. When enquired, he had overslept and also had had a fall just before getting into the ground. A stray dog has ran amok and he couldn't apply the brakes in time and hence had a lot of bruises, a real lot, all over his body and his pant was torn too. Needless to say, the vehicle had its own share of bruises which can be set right at any mechanic shop. Immediately, one of the kinder souls took him to the nearby military hospital to get some first aid - primarily to get the bleeding bruises to be cleaned up and possibly get an injection, if need be.

After a very short while, both of them returned and I was shocked to hear their words - "Not for civilians". This is what they have heard from the people at the hospital. I agree, the injury was not life threatening, but still, one expects some humanity atleast in hospitals. I expect it to be more in military hospitals given that they really know (?) the value of lives - be it civilians or military men. Do we need this partiality in our country where we keep saying that a man in Kanyakumari sheds tears for someone totally unknown in Kashmir for sacrificing his life for the nation?

There is definitely a need to repair some rules for the sake of humanity, atleast. Upgrading hospitals aren't of any use if they don't attend to the needy.

After London, its New Delhi

Happened to surf channels as usual and managed to catch the unfortunate news of bomb blasts in Delhi. Logged on to the net immediately and came to know that it could be as much as 4 blasts at 4 different places. The number of casualities being said right now would certainly increase by tomorrow or even late tonight.

The next thing I did was to check about the relatives in Delhi and was relieved to get an all safe message from them.

Settled down to hear more news on TV and saw the Delhi CM's message - "Sad day for Delhi" - this, to me, was absolutely intelligent and infact a great eye-opener to many people in the world. Next came the other fabulous message. This time, from the PM stating - "People should stay calm and terrorism cannot defeat the people of India". As the PM's message flashed on the TV screen, the visual showed a man down in tears and crying quite vociferously, probably having lost one/some of his kins. How can you make him think that terrorism cannot defeat India and India will surely win the war against terrorism?

Till this point of time, no terrorist group has claimed to be responsible for this mishap. Stay tuned to a lot of TV channels and websites to know more details.

One last question to the President - if incase the people responsible for this are spotted, should we pardon them without a death sentence? Probably, yes, we should give them death, as sentences seem to be pretty long these days.