Today did not start quite alright. All the minute things that make the day go smooth were going wrong. The guy who delivers milk seem to have forgot to do that today. For a South Indian family, the morning tea being disrupted is a somewhat serious issue. Resorts to dairy whitener with reluctance. Now comes the next… the maid did not turn up either! Sini is allergic to dish-washing soap and am generally lazy in the mornings, which means the dishes stay piled up for another day. All those is pushed aside and we find merry in the fact that the whole family is together (though it is almost time for my parents and sis to leave). About to leave and lo, the car is not washed either! C’mon… this is going beyond coincidence!
Off we head for the airport, drop my family and turn back in 20 minutes. I should have remembered to avoid this part of the city at this hour. For the next 40 minutes we drive less than 2 km. Am almost there to take the exit to the ring-road (sort of like a freeway) when a Tata Indica (KA05 C9321) rushes through the parking lot of a textile shop and zooms into the lane am in, in front of a Maruthi 800 (KA04 N3548) ahead of me. Those cars collide and I hit behind the Maruthi. Fortunately there is nobody hurt seriously. Sini hit the front glass and it got cracks (she dint wear the seatbelt – people, it is very important to wear your seatbelts!), but luckily she is not hurt. So we ended up with a bulged bumper, broken radiator pipe, coolant sprayed everywhere and a broken front glass. Wow, this is what kept the day incomplete – an accident!
The worst part is that the Indica guy fled off instantly. He did not stop to see the damage he caused or even to see if someone was hurt. Last week I saw a Toyota Qualis which had virtually flown off the road and hit an advertisement hoarding before landing in the ditch below. That vehicle too belonged to a call-center. In Bangalore, these vehicles working for call-centers (BPO) drive very rash and cause many accidents very often (you can spot at least one every day on the ring road where a call-center vehicle is involved). Though these vehicles carry a sticker behind (the usual “How do I drive?” stuff), that does not seem to be sufficiently backed up by training on the company’s part (the BPO or the logistics provider) or ethics on the driver’s part. Without putting any pre-requisites in selecting and employing drivers, just putting a sticker behind the vehicle does not make you a responsible company! There are hundreds of oil tankers that drive from Mangalore (MRPL?) to Bangalore. I have never caught a single one of them driving rash. Some investment and thought have definitely gone behind it. In short, the logistics provider is responsible in part, if not entirely, for the very bad attitude shown by their drivers on road. And it is high time companies like Aviva, AOL, 24×7, ICICI and the like started showing some concern over the chaos caused on road by their logistics partners.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Cool Sajin,
Nice to keep all these experiences in such a place. Yeah I do agree that these guys are real rash and probably the main reason my parents will never let me drive to work!! God knows when the govt and the so called MNCs will open their eyes. But hope we shud all do for a better and healthier attitude from one n all!!
And the bus drivers. Write a rant on them too, please..:) I wanna feel good reading it. The bus drivers here need some serious driving lessons.