San, a chatterbox since birth, blabbered to her delight, Rohan as usual amused and baffled at her tendency to bluff but at the end entertained, he was so much into San that he did not noticed that he was walking on the flights of ash which covered the dungeons.
He tossed n fell into it n broke both his legs... San in her own created world realized this after some five minutes…that she was talking to herself, as Rohan was left behind, somewhere… She ran back in search of her mate… as her eyes searched him they got filled with tears… for a moment her heart sank… was deaf but heard only one voice calling out the words ‘ San I am stuck here help me, it hurts, turn back I am here’
And the story ends in the Hospital…
Feels more like a fantasy or a fairy tale isn’t it?? But this is the reality of Indian footpaths, these kind of accidents do occur in real life too… pedestrians have no place on the roads… they have two choices… either walk over the dungeons, or on the roads with moving vehicles. Both are dangerous but they are left with no choice…
If you walk on the roads, the police say… walk on the footpaths. And the footpaths are either broken slabs of stones covering the drains below, where u are scared, if your phone goes into it... you will never get it back, so you hold it tight. Where you step on to a slab and it shakes and tremors under your feet, like an earthquake and your heart skips a beat, or the footpath is the favorite place for the hawkers and vendors where you hang around with friends and family to enjoy panipuri, Golgappa or fuchkas…
The question is where will the pedestrians go?? They think it is better to walk on the roads with speeding vehicles, rather than walking and falling into the gutter below.
It is more like… where ever you step, death awaits..
This is a problem, which should be given a second thought by our representatives, adults may suffer injuries but children and senior citizens are at high risk.
very well written anu..brought out a very horrible truth perfectly.. this is the case in even metros and major and "well developed" cities of India.. govt and police try to clear the footpaths off "unregistered" vendors and cobblers and other ppl to make it "safer" for pedestrians to walk.. but do they ever care abt the damage caused to them(footpaths) due to their own activities like laying of underground cables, road constuction, etc., and do they ever go back and repair the damage caused due to these activities.. NO..!! this is one serious problem which ought to be reported to the local authorities before the number of deaths caused by this increases..!!
ReplyDeletecheers...
this is exactly what i meant... n this is why i have started this blog... (to raise our voice)
ReplyDeleteVery well written.. I hate these street hawkers claiming the pedestrian space.. And the scare of dropping the cellphone into the drains below!! Here in chennai, sometimes, even the two wheelers claim the footpaths!!
ReplyDeleteManorath
ReplyDeletethanks for visiting....
n two wheelers claiming footh path is a common scene in most of the cities.. i didnt mention it....
thank you...