One day while sitting on the bench on the platform of a station, I saw the railways had put up a signboard picturing two ghosts talking to each other, with one saying in bold letters, “I CROSSED ONLY ONCE!”
That got me thinking that once was enough wasn’t it, for human life to take a ghostly form?
Yet thousands of lives are lost every year on railway tracks, roads and in other thoughtless ways. Lives cut short and families shattered.
Come with me to the homes of a few who’ve gone this way:
“He was a clever, intelligent boy, we had high hopes for him, he was the darling of this house and used to tell me ma, when I finish my CA we will shift into a real flat in a pucca building, now we’re even worse off and on the streets. Why did he do it? Why did he leave us like this? Couldn’t he have thought of us when he crossed the tracks that day?”
Let’s move to a house where a father of two has lost his life:
“Daddy!” cries his once upon a time little girl, “Why did you leave us daddy? Without you the boys outside tease me, taunt me, flirt with me, they wouldn’t have dared if you’d been around. I’ve had to leave college, find a job, my future is gone, we’ve had to change the schools of both Reena and Geeta and put them in municipal schools because we could not afford the fees. Why daddy? Why? Couldn’t you have thought of us that day when you crossed the road looking at your phone instead of at the traffic?”
Or, “Why didn’t you look after your diabetes mother, couldn’t you have controlled your love for sweets?”
“Why did you drink so much dad? Didn’t you think of us, instead of the bottle?”
Or let’s go to a home where the darling of the house, a young girl fell off a bike: “Why couldn’t that child have thought of us when she sat as a pillion with her boyfriend without a helmet? She killed not only herself but us also. Why was she so selfish?”
Selfish!
Yes, that’s the word that describes you and me when we jump from a platform onto those deathly tracks, or cross a busy road or any of the numerous ways including neglecting our health and finally lose our lives.
And these acts of selfishness, destroy not just one life, yours, but all others in your family. Is it worth it? Yes, you dad, yes you mother, yes you love struck daughter, and you, daredevil son? Is it right on your part to destroy the lives of your loved ones with one selfish act?
It’s not just you who dies but your family with you!
Think deeply, is it fair that others die because of you?
Robert Clements is a newspaper columnist and author. He blogs at www.bobsbanter.com and can be reached at bobsbanter@gmail.com
