Ravi Kant
Are you driving on the Jammu city roads? Let me tell you one underlining principle worth adhering to as a golden rule while you drive on Jammu’s roads. You have to always consider as if the other people driving on the roads are blind and it is absolutely your responsibility to keep yourself safe till you reach at your destination. If someone is trying to overtake you even if there is no space, let him/her; if someone is coming from opposite side in one way traffic wrongfully, let him; even if your signal is green beware of someone in hurry from other direction jumping the red light, let him; someone texting on his/her cell phone while driving let him and beware to save yourself lest he/she should not hit you and let him/her complete the task; if any auto rickshaw is suddenly taking a U-turn in the middle of the road and that too without any signal shattering all kinds of principles of driving, while you are following him, be cautious and let him; if any young motorcyclists fascinated with the high pitch sound of their accelerator and surpassing you making zigzags, let them; if any two matadors racing with each other, like in movies, and trying to surpass each other hardly leaving any space for the vehicles coming from the opposite direction just to gain a meagre amount of their revenue and without caring for the lives of the people they are carrying, let them; and any matador applying break anywhere in the middle of the road to either de-board or board its passengers, thus closing all options for you to overtake it, let it and wait, and don’t blow any horn in vain, even if you are getting late for your office/workplace.
All the above described pathetic scenes of traffic on Jammu roads are very common and might have been observed by everybody while driving. It needs a calm and mature mind to understand that the offshoot of all these violations may be quite fatal and then there shall be no reverse gear. At the same time I don’t see any reason behind all these hurries and don’t think that the people are in a hurry because they have to reach in time to perform something really very important for which they endanger either their own or someone else’s life. And God forbids if any mis-happening takes place someone may lose someone very dear. What is more painful is that all this is happening under the nose of traffic police who often turn a blind eye towards any such offender for reasons beyond my comprehension, especially in case of chaos being created by matadors.
If the plight of city traffic continues to be as explained above how we can ensure the safety of anybody. We often come across with lot of big slogans about safety while driving, but how many of us adhere to those slogans and really implement them in our habits and patience. Every year we all observe the traffic safety week in the start of the year but how many of us take home any learning from that event. We are heading towards making our Jammu a Smart City and all are and must be duty-bound for the same. I think one of the major criteria of Smart City must also be how safe are our city roads and how safely the people are driving their vehicles on the roads? It is our responsibility more than that of the administration to adopt the safe driving habits and enjoy our rides amidst the beauty of Jammu. It is our duty to be patiently in queues while there is traffic congestion due to any external factor and put a show of the highest standards of discipline, to not blow the unnecessary horns, to give proper space to other vehicles so that there is not even the slightest danger of any kind of collusion between any two vehicles, to always give preference to the people crossing on foot and to not throw away any kind of wastage out of the moving vehicle on the road. If we don’t keep our patience while driving, we might have to adopt more patience while on hospital bed, or even somewhere else worse than that. Remember then there shall be no other option than to repent on the undue and unnecessary hurry displayed before the misadventure took place.
In the end, I have only one suggestion to make. Can we always give way to other vehicle and in Lakhnavi style say “Pehle Aap”. I am sure if everyone adopts this approach there shall be no collusions, no traffic jams, no stress while driving, instead there would be safety all around and all would enjoy the drive through the city roads.
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