Highway to Hell

Naveen sits quietly on the sofa in the hospital room, tranquil, eyes closed. He looks asleep. But suddenly he says ‘I remember you’. And you are forced to look at him. He is awake. But his eyes are closed. Maybe he does not want to see the world around him. Maybe he does not want to see his dreams crashing around him. Maybe he does not want to see that he cannot see!

No, he is not an eighty year old man going blind. No, he is not a cancer survivor. He is only a simple Indian, going home from work.

Naveen is a young gen X personality, smart, hard working. A civil engineer, he works for a large construction company involved in building a housing complex at Sohna Road. A girl friend waiting for him, four sisters devoted to him and a mother lovingly doting on him. His world was complete and idyllic. But his world crashed around him one day.

He was going home from work one day, taking the route he always does, Rajiv Chowk, NH 8 till Rajokri, Bijwasan and then Nangloi. And, as usual he was on the expressway and no one stopped him. But just short of the toll plaza, on the Shankar Chowk flyover, one Santro ahead of  him slowed down and before he realized it,  he had crashed into the rear end of the Santro. He lay bleeding on the expressway, his face, his eyes, his skull, his dreams, his world, shattered!

I was driving just behind him and was first at the site. Pulse OK, Patient conscious, no signs of any spinal injury, but just to be safe I asked him not to move, though he wanted desperately to sit. The only problem was that there was a long laceration running right across his nose and eyes, and there was a heavy flow of blood from his eyes.

Next – rang up ‘100’. Shooed away the spectators who were witnessing a free show. Waited five minutes, again rang up ‘100’.

‘Sir, PCR 18 is on the way’

Calmed Naveen who was on the verge of hysteria (strange, according to ancient medical sciences, hysteria occurred only in women – that is why the word ‘hyster’ia). Rang up 100 again – ten minutes had elapsed since the accident – the patient was losing blood.

‘Sir, PCR 18 is on the way’

Got Naveen to tell me his sister’s number and rang her up with the news – she is the one who really went hysterical.

13 minutes gone – rang up 100 again with a different tone to my voice now

‘Can you tell me the DCP’s name and phone number?’

‘Why do you want his number? The PCR is on the way’. And before I could say Jack Robinson or Nitin Arora or whoever is the DCP, I could hear the sirens of both the PCR Gypsy and the Ambulance. It was 14 minutes since I made the first call.

Naveen was transferred to a stretcher, put in the ambulance and shifted to a hospital. Then I got talking to Narender,  incharge of the PCR, number 19! (Not 18).

‘Actually PCR 18 was diverted because there was some traffic jam somewhere and I got the message only one minute back. I came as fast as I could. I was standing just below the flyover and I came wrong side.’

Just like Osama was where he should not have been and is dead, Naveen was also where he should not have been – on the Shankar Chowk flyover – on which two wheelers are banned – and wishes he was dead.

Hindu scriptures say that all events are predestined. And sometimes situations and conditions are created to fulfill the prophesy. Just like Garuda, the mythical bird, carried the crow thousands of miles to his death, many persons facilitated Naveen to reach the flyover to his calamity.

The first and foremost is DSC, the concessionaire which built and operated the expressway. And in doing so rakes in the moolah.  Motorcycles, especially smaller than 250 cc, are not allowed on expressways around the world, mainly for safety reasons. This expressway was also designed on the same pattern and similarly motocycles and other slow moving vehicles  are not permitted. Infact signs to this effect are placed at each entry and exit on the highway. DSC is supposed to educate the expressway users and also prevent  motorcyclists from accessing the expressway. The State Support Agreement, authorizes them to take the assistance of the police for enforcing the rules. DSC is also supposed to provide traffic marshals at each entry and exit point for the same reason.

But while the marshals at the toll gate are extremely intelligent and interact with the vehicle owners and, most important, do NOT let any vehicle through without paying the toll, why are there no marshals at the entry points to prevent motorcycles accessing the expressway. And even if they are present there, they are images of solitude, coolly, calmly, sitting or chatting, or smoking their time away.

DSC and its marshals should have prevented Naveen from entering the highway. They did not. 

The second is the traffic police. It is the duty of the police to provide dedicated patrol parties for the highway and to ensure that all rules are obeyed.  But a small little birdie tweeted in my ear that these traffic cops have instructions not to stop motorcycles from entering the highway.

And this was confirmed by DCP (Traffic) Bharti Arora. She said, ‘Haryana government has not signed any agreement that motorcycles should be prevented by the police from using the highway.’ But, then, the Principal Secretary PWD (B&R) has signed the agreement.

The Commissioner Mr Deswal goes a step further. ‘Even if there is an agreement, it is flawed and should be rectified. If a baby is born deformed, you do not let it die, you operate. Similarly this agreement is deformed’. And he has taken it upon himself to ‘operate’ on this agreement. Another argument given by Mr Deswal:

‘You are rich people and can afford cars and drive on the expressway. But poor people who cannot afford cars should also enjoy the expressway.’ Well said. Naveen is really enjoying himself.

The police and the traffic police should have prevented Naveen from using the highway. They did not.

Also, while allowing motorcycles on the expressway, by whatever means, should they not have the necessary infrastructure.

That it took the PCR and ambulance a full 14 minutes to reach the accident site, which is only 500 metres from the toll plaza and 50 metres from Shankar Chowk, speaks volumes about the facilities available on this world class expressway, for which we are paying, by the way!

Who, out of this multitude, is responsible for Naveen’s life, or what is left of it?

DSC maintains a ‘Corporate Communications’ division with whose personnel I have had the misfortune of interacting twice, once with someone known as Mandeepa Joshi, when I was writing an article for Times of India and once with Manoj Agarwal now. What I fail to understand is how DSC emplys persons who seem afflicted with the same problem into this communications thing – because when these persons are contacted by phone they are unable to hear and say, ‘We can’t understand what you are saying, send your queries by mail’, and when the same are mailed to them they are unable to read the mails and so cannot reply!! With whom do these persons with this weird symptoms ‘communicate’?

I was discussing with a friend about this article and that I am titling it ‘Highway to Hell’. He told me that for Gurgaon the highway begins at the toll plaza or ends at it, another hell. So it should be titled “Highway from Hell to Hell’.

Before signing off, here is a picture forwarded to me by a friend who clicked it ON the highway near Jharsa Chowk.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards?

(c) Dr Rajiv Bhatia