I was on inner ring road today and at a signal, a guy on a bike started honking while there was still about a minute to go before the red light changed to green. I tried my best to kill him with my glares. He didn't die but he did stop honking. Just as I was enjoying the powers of my glares there was more honking. This time I didn't know who the culprit. The constables at the signal , however got irritated and shouted that there's still 30 secs to go. And someone said its an ambulance. The constables and a few of us at the head of the signal, panic and try to make way, but we can neither see nor hear the ambulance. The signal opened and I frantically moved to the left of the road, wondering why I can't hear the the ambulance. Full two minutes later I heard it. Not before the mad honking of a call centre cabbie! He was driving faster than the ambulance and wasn't letting it overtake him. No one in the vehicle seemed to be perturbed by it. For next five minutes the ambulance tried helplessly to overtake the stupid cab which just wouldn't let up. The ambulance got its way through only when the cab turned off in a different direction. I prayed that those five minutes of delay and the other such delays that I didn't witness, didn't jeopardise the patient in the ambulance.
Why are we in such a hurry that we can't even let an ambulance go past us? Will that cabbie really lose his day's pay if he slows down, even for an ambulance? Will those passengers in the cab lose their pay? Who'll pay if the patient loses his chance to live because someone didn't want to lose his day's pay?
4 comments:
Yes Abhipraya, a BPO cabbie will lose his day's salary or half day's salary if he slows down and the BPO emplyees complain. Rich in BPOs dont bother about life and deaths. In Mumbai BPO accidents are a thing of the past. We, the others now have found a way to avoid going in rich kids' path. Are they not the India Inc kids? Are they not form Rising India?
Dear Anonymous,
Can you pl. explain what do you mean by "In Mumbai BPO accidents are a thing of the past." what is different there?
And pl. next time do leave your name.
Well may be I sounded not correct. When there was this BPO boom in residential areas of Powai and other Western suburbs of the city, there was a hight rate of accidents due to overspeeding BPO cabbies, not necessarily deaths. They almost equalled the number of hits and runs in Western and Eastern Express Highways. I agree, be it Bangalore or Bombay accidents, pain injury are the same. The difference or bettr the decrease in number is because others wisely stay away from the cabbie path.
(I really enjoy erading your blog.)
Thanks Kannan :-)
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