Reflections

It was a day like any other; I was rushing off to meet the hands of my clock. I had to fit in a doctor’s appointment too that Thursday and was wondering for the umpteenth time why we could not have at least 25 hours. A lingering back ache has finally led me to the doctor and I would say here that it was more on the insistence of my sis doc that I found myself at his OPD at St. John’s that day. After a long wait we were given an audience by the Orthopaedician. He tapped, poked and stroked and came out with the verdict: An irritated disc in the lumbar region. (Thanks to the media I was not left gaping at the terminology). A healthy diet, some gentle exercises and the will to make it happen was his prescription for the same. My extended sitting hours, both at work and in the car, contributed to it and I had to take care. We went ahead for the routine checks – the Xray was done but the blood samples could only be given the following day as I was not on an ‘empty stomach’. So the next da...

A friend of more than eight years met with an accident while he was driving back home after dinner, with his wife and baby. A pleasant evening culminated in to an indelible memory when the car crashed in to a call centre taxi during the late evening hours yesterday. In no time was a family erased with just a single survivor left behind, battling for life. After the initial shock, the news sank in and I finally was ready to acknowledge the fact that we take our lives and its safety so much for granted. Despite the laws of mandatory usage of seat belts we still drive around without them, leaving the seat belts hanging on to the door sides gathering dust. (From February 1 2009, the city traffic police will begin penalizing those who are not fastening their seatbelts. This had been made mandatory in the country under Section 138 of the Motor Vehicles Act following an amendment in 2003. Source: www.expressindia.com dated 29th January 2009) Driving time has turned out to be the most conven...