Heard this disturbing news over the weekend.
A friend of mine was out for a team-lunch on last Friday. While returning from lunch, while he was waiting on his bike with a colleague on the pillion, by the side of a road in Bangalore, well within city, a speeding truck ran over them. Both of them are no more.
Even a million 'deepest condolences' or 'may his soul rest in peace' messages will do nothing for his young wife, and she will have to go through the devastation on her own. I can't imagine the condition of his colleagues who saw this happening, from a car. He was not my close friend. But, I just dropped by, a few months back during a cycle ride, along with a few others, and had breakfast at his house. He had spent significant amount of time to design each room of his house on his own, and got the interiors done beautifully.
The least, I feel I should do is, request every reader of this to share this incident with every speeding driver, be it your colleague or drivers of auto or taxi to the Airport or an office cab. I found even the rudest of the drivers are not inherently bad. I had seen an auto driver, who refused to accept meter fare and demanded exorbitant fare, was the first one to jump out of his auto and help a couple who fell on road from a bike. I was also helped by a truck driver on a highway when my Bullet skidded and I landed on the middle of the road.
I don't know what must have been going through this particular truck driver. He might be drunk, negligent or indifferent. I am more worried about people who are just indifferent. Because, there are just too many of them. Everyone seem to be in a hurry on road, all the time, for no apparent reason. I get yelled at almost everyday, for stopping at red signal, while riding my cycle at 6:30 AM. I haven't seen the owners of cars or employees getting to work in cabs objecting their drivers breaking signals or driving rash.
There are enough ways to get life snuffed out of us. Let's get rid of at least a few. Let's educate everyone that driving rashly is not a macho thing!
