I left to Hyderabad from Bangalore on the 27th night.All set to enjoy my four day Diwali vacation. The season being a hectic one, and me having not booked my tickets two months in advance had to travel by bus. Fact is , I hate travelling by bus. Especially if it is an overnight journey. My bus which was supposed to leave at 9.30 dilly dallyed waiting for some passengers and finally left at 10.15. After a rather bumpy journey, at around 8.15 in the morning we were finally about 50 kms from Hyderabad when we got stuck in a traffic jam. The reason? A bus travelling from Bangalore had collided with a truck coming in the opposite direction.A headlong collision.End result?
Five people died instantaneously.
The bus had been trying to overtake the bus ahead of it when due to brake failure it collided against the lorry. The bus I was travelling on was about 10 buses behind the one that collided. A couple of people in my bus were completely spooked out. They could not help but keep repeating "Oh my god! I normally travel by that bus. It's just that this time I could not get tickets to come by that". The fear of disaster. The fear of death. The eeriest fear that one can come across. It is the only one unexplained, unexpected and irreversible.
And the only thing it can leave you saying is "If only.....".
Everyday in the papers we read about people dying in automobile accidents. Yes, I know. There have been more terrible disasters happening lately. The bomb blasts , the train in AP that derailed killing hundreds, the floods that have inundated our entire country.... the list goes on. But fact remains that there are certain things that are within our control.
You cannot say that you will not go to markets and thereby avoid bomb blasts. You cannot just lock yourself in your homes and say I will not travel by planes or by trains. But you definitely can drive a lot more safely.
About a year ago a friend of mine and me went speeding in the morning till tears were involuntarily dripping from my eyes. The thrill of it all was.... beyond fantastic! But in retrospective , I can't help but feel , was it necessary? What if we had skidded to deformity if not death? The oft used and tired slogan 'Speed thrills but kills' is more appropriate than it has been given credit for.
There is so much of tragedy in life that cannot be averted. So much of pain and suffering that we must need experience. Yet so much of tragedy we can avert just by driving safe. Just by deciding to not speed through life.
Drive Safe.
