Kudos to the young man who thought of preventing injuries to others despite his own pain. That one spark ignited the others around, and it was contagious! Thanks to Shilpa Shree for sharing this, and her contribution to make our streets safe.
Each one of us can make a difference!
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Every time I hear of road accident death instances, my heart goes out to grieving families. I have lost a dear one too. Sometimes it angers me that the collective conscience of our country seems to be dead and we have become insensitive to the grieving families and we don’t seem to value a life. But sometimes certain instances rejuvenate hope in us. This is the story of one such incident.
It was a normal day. As usual, I stepped out for my walk in the evening. I took the usual route, which is a five minute distance from my residence to Aarey Bhaskar (the nearby garden with a decent walking track of 450 metres).
Just a minute before I reached my destination I saw a crowd of 4-5 people standing next to a couple of bikes parked on the roadside. Two of them were mildly limping. As I headed close to them I noticed a trail of black liquid that seemed like oil which must have leaked from a truck that had just passed. Obviously these two guys skidded over it and had a fall.
It touched my heart to see that 2-3 other college going students along with these two people who had fallen were alerting the other two wheelers that came the same way about the oil spill.
I walked towards the lanky fellow who was hurt and asked him how is he doing. “I first need to do something about this oil spill madam. I am thinking of that. I don’t want anyone else to fall,” he said. I could not stop a tear that fell from my eyes. He became my instant hero. Instead of letting me float away in my thoughts, he brought me back to reality with his urgency.
“Madam, hum kya kar sakte hai? Mera dimaag nahi chal raha. Mere paav mai bohut dukh raha hai (Madam what do you think we could could do? My mind is not working. My leg is hurting). I just want make sure that this oil spill is taken care off,” he said.
A collegian around suggested that we pour mud over the spill so that mud adds a friction preventing the two wheelers from falling. We immediately ran towards the nearby shops, picked up buckets and anything that resembled a spade and started digging mud that lie near Aarey Bhaskar and gently laid it on the spill. When we began we were about 6 people, but soon the number swelled to about 30. In 10 minutes the entire 200 metre stretch of oil spill was covered with mud.
That day I realized, if we as a citizen help ourselves by being a little selfless, the nation will join us. It restored my faith in humanity.
–Shilpa Shree , Mumbai