Dont drink and drive.. Please.. !

It was sometime back last year. It was a saturday morning in Bangalore. As like every weekend, it was 9:30 in the morning and I am still in bed. My mobile was ringing. But I was too lazy to getup and pick it. So, I ignored it the first time. When it rang again, I had to pick it up. As I was picking up the call, I saw that there are around 5 missed calls. It was my Dad. He was angry that I needed five calls to getup. And the second thing he said was kind of shocking. He said that Mr. L has met with an accident. He asked me to call Uncle K. K is my Dad's buddy, from our village and was living in Bangalore for past 20 yrs. I gave a call to K's home but his phone was busy.

L and I are good childhood friends. Its a different story that we didnot get time to meet in Bangalore, even though L has moved to the city a good 3 months back. Our friendship might have started because L's dad and my dad are best buddies. We were from the same village. We used to go to the same school and we were in the same class. We also used to go to school on the same cycle rickshaw. After our forth standard, we both moved to boarding schools in different places. But we would meet everytime we came to our village. As we grew up, we were not the best of the friends anymore, but still were friends. After all, he is my first friend and I am his.

I quickly got ready and gave a call again to K's house. K's wife has picked up the phone this time. And I heard the thunderbolt. L is no more. He died in the accident and so were two of his friends. I rushed to the Ramayya hospital, which was about 20 kms from my home. I went straight to the Mortuary. I couldnot find K outside. As I was waiting for about 10 mins, K has come from in. He confirmed it was indeed L. As K was finishing the formalities at the Mortuary for the Post-Mortem, he told the details of the accident. L was drunk and so were his friends. L was driving the car. The car they were driving crashed onto the leftside of the lorry coming from the opposite side near Hebbal. And all the three were head on the spot. It took the police a good 2 hours to cut through the car and take out the bodies.

I went to our village about three times after this incident, but never went to L's home again. I didnot want to meet his mother. She doted on her son. She had two sons, I knew she loved L more, maybe because he was younger. I didnot want to remind her of L again. I am sure she will think of L the time she sees me. Afterall, she would always see me with L. I did meet L's dad, but never spoke to him about L or about that incident.

This is an old article on drunken driving, but still worth a read. According to this, about 75% of the people involved in drunken driving are in age group 15-30 years. These are people who have lots of years of future ahead. There would definitely be a lot of bread winners for their families among them. Another statistic is that the number of traffic accident deaths in Bangalore a.k.a The Pub City are more on weekend nights. Though not specific to drunken driving, India accounts for 10% of world's traffic accident deaths, while it accounts for only 1% of vehicles.


Isn't this world a beautiful place? Is it worth giving our life for a bottle of Whisky, Vodka, Brandy, Beer.. or whatever... ? I know this has been said a numerous times at numerous places.. but again, for my L and for all of you out there who drink, Please dont mix drink with driving. It will kill you.. if not the first time.. maybe the Nth time...

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