May 15, 2002 03:54 AM
2308 Views
(Updated May 15, 2002 03:54 AM)
He was nice gentleman. He was the best Team Leader in our company. He had a great family. It was fun having him around.
He had a bike and there was a road… and he wanted to save ten minutes by not traveling in the company bus… He believed in taking the initiative… He overtook every possible moving object on the road. He drove only in the middle of the road. He drove at eighty kilometers per hour.
It was fun for awhile. Then he hit a rock on the road. He lost his balance. All happened in a split second. His head was right under the wheels of a speeding truck.
Mr. Aravind Kumar is no more with us. But his memories will always be cherished by all of us. His family would probably never recover from the shock. The project he had been leading in our company could never again attain the same efficiency.
All in a split second… a second before that he was a happy man, with a wife and loving parents… with a great job in hand… and a nice future ahead of him… a second later he was no more… all dreams shattered… leaving his kith and kin in deep shock.
To all those rash drivers out there, I have a request. Your life is important to us. I can’t probably put in words how much you mean to your family members. For Chrissakes, do not take chances with your life. Riding a two-wheeler itself is dangerous in a country like India… And the youth considers it an archaic practice to use helmets. Okay. Let us not be too particular about the helmet… but what Autobahn is there in India to drive a bike at eighty or ninety kilometers per hour? Alright! You got the bike. You gotta go fast… but why in the middle of the road? Are you competing with those trucks and lorries? Are you competing with drunken drivers who don't even know the spelling of a'lane'?
In India the life of a two-wheeler is dependent totally on the drunkenness of the lorry driver speeding behind him. Add to that the attitude of most of these two-wheeler heroes. They think that they can drive rashly and that the rest of the junta would yield. Ha! Nice assumption.
Have you got a bike my dear reader? If the answer is Yes, get yourself a paper and note down the following points. Get a sign-off from your immediate family members and follow them to the last letter.
If possible, don't use a bike.
Wear a helmet. If you have got a pillion rider, ask her to wear a helmet too.
Avoid going over sixty kilometers per hour. Indian roads are not designed for bikes zooming at 100KMPH.
Drive on the left most lane of the road. Don't even think of competing with the metal monsters aka killing machines that ply freely on the road.
Use public transportation as much as possible.
Before signing off… I would like you to close your eyes and imagine a situation where you are dead right in the middle of the road covered totally in blood and a dangling piece of flesh where your head should be… and imagine the reaction of your family members.
Life is beautiful. Ugly things do happen. You won't be living to suffer your loss. It is gonna be your loved ones.
DRIVE SAFELY.
Venu - Lost three friends in road accidents… All riding on bikes… All because of not being a defensive driver.
