As a student of an elementary school in a hamlet of just forty houses in a remote village in Tamilnadu me and my classmates , on orders from our teachers used to go to the nearby villages which were two to three miles away from my village to bring lunch or to get post-cards or inland letters from the sub-post office or to collect chocolate pockets from the village panchayat president’s house on the eve of independence day or the republic day . On a few occasions we had to deliver some bags of noon-meal items (corn-flour/imported oil supplied through the CARE programme, the pioneering dream project of K.Kamaraj as CM of TN). At times we had to wade through knee deep waters and walk along the grassy bunds of green paddy fields. In case of rains we had to drench as umbrellas were a luxury then for us. A few streams are to be crossed on way and in the months of October and November the Jungle Rivers would be in spate. Holding the hands of the passerby we had to cross those small rivers.
But to run these errands there would be a stiff competition among my school mates. Only the lucky ones would get a chance to explore the outside world. After the lunch, in the afternoons we would take turns to cool our teachers with the help of palm leaf fans as the village had not seen the electricity. The teachers were mostly from the southern districts and never our parents had questioned our teachers for assigning such works to us. All this happened when we were hardly eight or nine year old.
Now after three decades I turn back and wonder what I lost as a child and what my child has gained today. He goes to his school by a bus and his teachers are not asking him to go elsewhere. But is he safe in this concrete jungle and moving metals?
Not a single day passes without a blown up report on a ‘killer bus’ or a ‘killer van’ driven by a ‘killer driver’ crushing a child. A TATA or an Ashok Leyland school bus metamorphoses into a new avatar all of a sudden. Either the bus is burnt or stoned and damaged beyond recognition. The driver, if he is lucky survives or otherwise succumbs. Calls for the arrests of all concerned are made and yet another incident engulfs us. These are not the signs of a mature society.
School kids running behind moving buses with their loaded school bags, hanging on to the foot boards precariously and overcrowded buses are a common sight here. Children packed like sardines and sitting dangerously on the sides of the driver seat in an auto is a regular feature for decades now. Nowhere in the world have you seen kids reading books seriously while they sit on the fuel tanks, as the father or mother riding a moped on a highway. It is not an uncommon sight altogether to see a parent talking over his /her mobile while the kids are on the vehicle.
It is also a fact hundreds of children lose their lives when the vehicles are driven by their own parents and hundreds of parents lose their lives as they travel on our killer roads. When lakhs of men lose their lives on our Indian roads insulating our kids alone from such tragedies is impractical. Of course the parent too has to survive to give a quality life to his kid. This problem of road rages can’t be treated in isolation. What is required is a missionary zeal from all concerned to minimize these avoidable mishaps.
Let us realize roads are neither parking lots nor shopping complexes. They are purely meant for journey alone. Don’t park your vehicles on the sides of roads and boycott shops with no parking space.
Most of the accidents are due to rash driving and drunken driving. The families with people of ‘drinking habit’ have to accept them and allow them to drink at homes as in western nations. Drinking is no more a social stigma and no need to hide this ‘great secret’ from our neighbours. You may want to protect your kids from the vice but others have to protect their lives. ‘Drinking habit’ may be an ‘evil’ for Gandhi ji but a ‘drunken driver’ is an ‘evil’ for the society. Allow them not to ride on roads under the influence of alcohol.
A two wheeler is meant for ‘two’ only and not for a whole family. Admit your wards in a nearby school. Don’t make your kids a ‘yatri’ every day. Search not for a reputed school and realize all our reputed men today came from non-descript local schools. Do take all precautions in your interest and in other’s interest.
But to run these errands there would be a stiff competition among my school mates. Only the lucky ones would get a chance to explore the outside world. After the lunch, in the afternoons we would take turns to cool our teachers with the help of palm leaf fans as the village had not seen the electricity. The teachers were mostly from the southern districts and never our parents had questioned our teachers for assigning such works to us. All this happened when we were hardly eight or nine year old.
Now after three decades I turn back and wonder what I lost as a child and what my child has gained today. He goes to his school by a bus and his teachers are not asking him to go elsewhere. But is he safe in this concrete jungle and moving metals?
Not a single day passes without a blown up report on a ‘killer bus’ or a ‘killer van’ driven by a ‘killer driver’ crushing a child. A TATA or an Ashok Leyland school bus metamorphoses into a new avatar all of a sudden. Either the bus is burnt or stoned and damaged beyond recognition. The driver, if he is lucky survives or otherwise succumbs. Calls for the arrests of all concerned are made and yet another incident engulfs us. These are not the signs of a mature society.
School kids running behind moving buses with their loaded school bags, hanging on to the foot boards precariously and overcrowded buses are a common sight here. Children packed like sardines and sitting dangerously on the sides of the driver seat in an auto is a regular feature for decades now. Nowhere in the world have you seen kids reading books seriously while they sit on the fuel tanks, as the father or mother riding a moped on a highway. It is not an uncommon sight altogether to see a parent talking over his /her mobile while the kids are on the vehicle.
It is also a fact hundreds of children lose their lives when the vehicles are driven by their own parents and hundreds of parents lose their lives as they travel on our killer roads. When lakhs of men lose their lives on our Indian roads insulating our kids alone from such tragedies is impractical. Of course the parent too has to survive to give a quality life to his kid. This problem of road rages can’t be treated in isolation. What is required is a missionary zeal from all concerned to minimize these avoidable mishaps.
Let us realize roads are neither parking lots nor shopping complexes. They are purely meant for journey alone. Don’t park your vehicles on the sides of roads and boycott shops with no parking space.
Most of the accidents are due to rash driving and drunken driving. The families with people of ‘drinking habit’ have to accept them and allow them to drink at homes as in western nations. Drinking is no more a social stigma and no need to hide this ‘great secret’ from our neighbours. You may want to protect your kids from the vice but others have to protect their lives. ‘Drinking habit’ may be an ‘evil’ for Gandhi ji but a ‘drunken driver’ is an ‘evil’ for the society. Allow them not to ride on roads under the influence of alcohol.
A two wheeler is meant for ‘two’ only and not for a whole family. Admit your wards in a nearby school. Don’t make your kids a ‘yatri’ every day. Search not for a reputed school and realize all our reputed men today came from non-descript local schools. Do take all precautions in your interest and in other’s interest.
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