Satyameva Jayate Season 3 has started; Aamir Khan & team have brought forward unique yet important topics on table for discussion. I wholeheartedly appreciate their work. Every actor is here to make money, but he is an actor who also contributes to society while making moolah. He surely is a constructive citizen of India.
Of the 3 episodes telecasted till date in season 3, my favourite has been the 2nd episode about Road Safety. This was one of those topics which frequently run into back of my mind. I had discussed about this with my mom several times. I drive at least 80 km a day, so this is more important and relevant to me. Aamir discussed on following traffic rules, empathizing and helping people in trouble due to accidents, etc. What he missed is discussing what the rules say.
It is important to follow rules, we all agree with it, but we cannot follow them until we know them. May be we know the most important/common rules, but we don’t know the lane disciplines, complete rules, when to use horn, and many more intricacies to make driving safe and peaceful. We should all request daily newspapers to print a small column on one Traffic Rule/discipline and its importance every day. This will create an impact on us and there will be someone starting the change in the way we drive.
We will not follow if we don’t know, but we may follow if we know. This hope will be a reality someday, because if one person follows, there will be 5 other people watching him on road and will follow the same.
Another, very important concern which we would have heard and forgotten hundreds of times is the fuel wasted while driving. I was very conscious regarding fuel wastage earlier, but now I don’t care much.
It is always suggested to shut engines at long signals, pool the cars to reduce road congestion and fuel usage, also to use public transport as much as possible, but we don’t do any of them. I don’t do any of them.
I realised my mistake again and it hit me hard on the previous Monday morning when I was driving my parents to Bangalore Airport. Airport is 40 km one way drive from home. It takes me 30 minutes drive to reach airport at early mornings as traffic would be less and the 3 lane one way express highway is good. They had a 9.40 AM flight to Delhi and we left home at 7.40 AM.
10 km into the airport express highway, I could only see taxis racing to Airport. I observed many taxis; none of them had more than 1 passenger. This appalled me, and suddenly triggered guilt in me. Bangalore has one of the best bus services in India, buses to Airport are superfast, made by Benz & Volvo with AC & wifi facility. These buses are called Vajra(Diamond) buses to Airport, with frequency of 1 bus in every 30 minutes leaving to Airport from bus stand.
If all the passengers travelling to airport would have travelled through public transport, then may be 1 bus would have travelled instead of 25 -30 cars. The nearest bus stop to my home is 200 metres, I could have comfortably dropped my parents in a very comfortable bus, but I drove 80 km. This isn’t about what our wallet can afford; it is about what we can’t afford. We can’t afford to waste precious fuel, to jam the roads for unwanted reasons, after knowing that the travel options are equally good.
Travelling by Taxis is not wrong. It is very much required, when there is an early morning or a late night flight, but not at the time when public transport is available. We need to empathize our future generations. They wouldn’t have the freedom to drive like us, they wouldn’t have enough fuel.
Let us all drive safely, follow rules, be courteous & disciplined, save fuel & use public transport.
I haven’t done most of it, but I have started. I would request my friends also to accompany me. I can’t drive alone on this road to save the Fuel for Future.
Nikhil Prabhakar's Weblog 