It's just a NEWS strip

Whenever you pick up a newspaper or just scroll over your phone for your early morning news-minute fix over a coffee you will definitely come across the news columns that are filled with accidents. It's pretty common that we scroll over, certainly, we don't want our day to be disturbed, but what if that strip of news knocks on your door in the form of someone you know?.

Here is something I would like to share. When I live in a locality for a long time, I tend to socialise with people around me, including people from shop vendors, curry points, and pan shops. It's just a little talk I have with them whenever I drop by those shops but I find a little comfort in that.

Once in a while I visit this man's shop in my area, he is in his late 60s, and he just sells the eggs in a small wheel cart parked beside the road. I call him uncle garu/babyaa garu, he and I are from the same hometown, and we used to have a small chit-chat in our Godavari dialect. He moved to Vizag 3 years back after making losses in the initial business.

I didn't find him for the last two weeks, that's strange because he always shows up on time at his shop, morning at 6 and stays up until 11 pm. Today I spotted his shop open on my way back home, I dropped by and found his head shaved, I presumed he might have been on some pilgrimage and I casually asked him," uncle garu where is prasadham ".

He glanced at me, "I lost my son last week in an accident ", he cried. I didn't know how to reply, I knew how much he loved his son, he shared with me earlier how hard he and his wife are working to pay their son's college fees, I tried to comfort him but he was inconsolable, on my further query he said how the accident took place.

His son, a Mechanical engineering graduate, recently got placed in a company. After finishing his night duty, he and his friends were returning home in the early morning at 5:30 am and they were hit by a car, it was reported that the driver behind the wheel was drunk. All three of them were severely injured and rushed to hospital but this uncle's son didn't survive and the other two are still in critical condition, fighting for their lives.

This made me feel guilty, I had to say this I am a teetotaller but I hang out with friends who booze on weekends and there were instances where I took a ride in a friend's vehicle who was drunk and behind the wheel, I did convince myself that it's just a two or three kilometres drive to my room but after listening to what happened to this man’s son I made a firm decision that next time I won't be doing the same mistake.

Every time you are behind the wheel you are not only holding the responsibility of your occupants in your car but also anyone else on the road, well this statement might sound unpleasant but this is the blatant truth you'll need to stick onto.

If you take the liberty of being drunk and sitting behind the wheel you are creating an unsafe environment for you and anyone else on or near the roads. Drinking and driving are more than unsafe—they can affect all aspects of your life and change them forever.

I might have read that NEWS a few weeks back, I don't remember but it is pretty sad to hear it from someone I know.