The attached link has come to me from several sources. It is a five minute interview with a Jehadi suicide bomber who is determined to carry out his mission. The interview is in Urdu, but the clip has English sub-titles. The extent to which he has been brain-washed borders on hypnotism..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD-Nny3EP98 (You must be above 18 to view this video)

The very thought of accosting men like him is scary. But when I look at life more carefully, I find that the likes of me have nothing to fear. No terrorist is likely to target an old man like me. To me and my colleagues the real threat comes from the roads. Suicide bombers have a mission and a cause. Some of the freedom fighters whom we now revere used violent means to achieve their objective. The quest for ‘revolution’ is eternal. The youth wants change. They want to make a difference.

But the killers on our roads destroy human life and property without any purpose. They just do it as a part of their daily routine, and we have got so used to this perennial threat that we have become insensitive to the phenomenon. Just consider the following facts which I have obtained from well researched documents:

More than 1,30,000 human lives were lost in India in 2009 and more than 7,50.000 were seriously injured. The loss is estimated to cost our nation more than Rs 2000 billion, and that is about 3% of our GDP. By a queer coincidence, this money is a little more than our total defense budget. Our road safety record is amongst the worst in the world. Even Pakistan has a lower rate of fatalities, due to their better road discipline. There is scarcely a week which goes by without us hearing about death or injury to one of our dear friends or relatives. Some of the recent news are as follows: Major Alok Singh, VrC was going for his morning walk in Delhi. He was crushed to death by a speeding car. In our neighborhood, Brig Maha Veer Dixit died while crossing the road to the terraced garden, hit by a motor cycle. Our elderly uncle was going to the market for a minor errand. He was knocked down by a vehicle and left to lie there until a kindly rikshaw puller picked him up and  took him to the hospital. We got his body late in the evening. My dear wife was going to the park last week. She was hit by the milk cans protruding from a motor cyclist. She cam back with a cut on her leg and a bruised ego. My latest discovery is that the most threatened persons are elderly pedestrians. They ‘think’ they can cross roads, and walk up to the market for their daily errands, but in effect, they lack the dexterity needed to keep out of harm’s way. My other observation is that our police  actively abets the crime. If ever they do reach the scene of accident, they do so for their personal gain.  A few years ago, my son along with his wife and a two year old child were returning from Delhi to Gurgaon. They were hit by larger car which simply ran into them at enormous speed. The bellows of the offending vehicles saved the speedsters and they escaped under the cover of darkness, while our son and his wife had to be hospitalized for several days. What the police di was shocking. They helped the culprits in hiring a poor young migrant from Bihar who admitted to have been on the wheel at the time of the accident. When I tried to argue with the SHO he said, “Sir, the damage can not be undone. The lives of your child and his family have been spared. Now, what will you gain by having the driver punished?” And indeed the culprit was so ell connected and had bribed the police so enormously that nothing which we did could enforce the law and administer justice. There is no method of telling the  people in power that by condoning the culprits we are making ourselves unsafe on the roads.

In most countries, ‘hit and run’ is felony. Here it is abetted by the police!

The limited purpose of this mail is to remind my elderly friends to be careful on the roads. Turning to the Police is of no use whatsoever. It can even turn out to be counter productive. I am tempted to quote the line from a well known song:

Maana toofaN ke aage, nahiN chalta zor kisi ka

MaujoN ka dosh nahiN hai, yeh dosh hai aur kisi ka

Manjhdhaar meiN nayya dole, to maanjhi use bachaaye

Maanjhi jo nau duboye, use kaun bachaaye??

Therefore, Aye bhai, zaraa dekh ke chalo, aage he nahiN peechhe bhi. DaayeN he inahiN baayeN bhi, oopar hi nahiN, neechebh…

With best wishes for your safety on the roads,

Surjit