An avoidable melancholy.

Bengaluru traffic! Huh, what can I say? Honks, screeches, shouts, snarls, exchange of curses, traffic jams and mental stress... It’s a hectic drive for me to reach my workplace. The drive is hectic as I drive through nearly twenty kilometres of potential bumper to bumper traffic. I nearly don’t mind the traffic unless I hear the shrieking siren of an ambulance!

Hearing the siren, I immediately become very much attentive (As I’m already attentive because of the inept traffic). I now watch out carefully and if the ambulance is behind me, I slowdown the car and move it to one side of the road indicating the side I’m moving all along. I watch the ambulance rush through the traffic and a sense of relief engulfs me.

Unfortunately, I don’t find the ‘sense of relief’ engulfing me very often. It is most of the times a struggle for the ambulance drivers to go through the traffic without any problems. I have seen ambulances stuck behind two buses as the buses are in a slow race and as none of the bus drivers wants to slow down and give way for the ambulance. I have seen bikers willingly getting right in front of the ambulance at traffic signals obstructing its smooth passage, believing they can race ahead (as the traffic police man will let them move despite of the red signal) taking advantage of the situation. I have seen truck drivers smoking and chatting casually, not caring to give way for the ambulance blaring right behind them. I have seen vehicles stopping the ambulance, so that they can take a turn in front of them! I don’t understand if these people are ignorant or arrogant, or both. I really don’t know. But a thought always crosses my mind when I come through such situations... have these people, have they ever seen a person die because of delay in time to reach the hospital?

Most of them probably may not have seen such situations or may not have been in such conditions ... but I have.

It’s a sad moment for a doctor to announce the death of the patient, and its worse when we tell them that we could have saved the patient if they had brought the patient a bit earlier. The response of the patients’ attendees is usually a surprise; they are in a state where they can’t believe their own bad luck! Sometimes their reaction may turn into disbelief or even mistrust, suspecting foul play from the doctors which is quite common assuming the situation they are in. Whatever the circumstances, let me make it certain that the doctor, though he/she may not make it very obvious, feels the pain the patients’ kith and kin are going through.

Is five minutes of our time more important than somebody else’s life? What do I earn out of those few mins, some more money? A pat on the back? An inviting smile? What else?

Just because I have never seen that somebody, or have never spoken with him, or have never known him in whatever ways possible, don’t I have any responsibility towards that person? Are individual interests superior to what we care for others? What is the thing that makes humans different from the so called animals?

I think it all finally boils down to the attitude we have towards our own fellow humans. Whether we have seen a dying patient, or we are ignorant or arrogant is not the matter finally, it’s the attitude one human has towards a fellow human. Yes, that’s all, attitude! Responsibility and care for somebody whom we have never known, just because the person is a human like us.