I reach the HOD office of Medicine department at 9 AM. today as usual. After meeting the people, signing documents and dictating a few letters and communicating digitally with some people I was driving to the teaching hospital .
A narrow road leads to the hospital. Usually vehicles are parked on the left side of the road and that makes the road even narrower. To make the matters worse, some two wheelers come on this narrow one way road from the opposite side. This forces the pedestrian to walk virtually in the middle of the road exposing himself to all the vehicles. A car stopped. An elderly man got out of the car and even before closed the door, swooned and fell. Another car passed him and possibly grazed his head. I was 2 cars behind this and saw it happen. As it was an unexpected event and there were people around, I was not too sure whether the man's head was hit by the door or the car that passed. The man who fell down started to bleed from his forehead just above the right eye. I was in 2 minds. I parked the car on the side of the road, got down came to that car and watched. The man driving that car also was an elderly man. He was shaken by the episode. People gathered around and started to ask questions. "What is the color and make of the car that passed by?" asked one person. Her blamed the driver for not noting the number. The driver was trying to put the man inside the car into the back seat and was struggling to do so. No one of the 50 or so people gathered around helped. One scooterist came from the opposite direction and blocked the door to ask some stupid questions of gossip value. He had to be shooed away to make way for the patient to be put inside the car. I helped the old man to do this. Then I volunteered to accompany them to a hospital leaving my car behind. I left the hospital only after making sure that the person was stable and his daughter arrived.
Whatever happened to our civic sense? Why do we hesitate to help people in distress? Is it the reflection of "me" attitude rather that "we"? Maybe like the nuclear family. We are distancing ourselves from serious problems - "As long as it is not me why should I bother" is one reason. "Why should I get involved in a police case?" is the other one. How on earth do we expect these people to help us in our crisis?
By helping them I got delayed elsewhere. I do not know whether I am right or the other 'wise' people are right. I am sure there ate more questions than there are answers. Sometimes the answers may be obvious and some times the answers may not come at all.
I suddenly remembered my childhood days when we were a big homogeneous group unconditionally helping each other. If a boy fell from a tree and got injured, we would stop playing, attend to him, give him water, take him to the nearest doctor who usually did not charge, get medicines take him home and tell only the mother (underplaying the seriousness) and avoid the father and disappear. We pledged to remain so for all time to come and help each other and other people also. I wonder whatever happened to the pledge!
A narrow road leads to the hospital. Usually vehicles are parked on the left side of the road and that makes the road even narrower. To make the matters worse, some two wheelers come on this narrow one way road from the opposite side. This forces the pedestrian to walk virtually in the middle of the road exposing himself to all the vehicles. A car stopped. An elderly man got out of the car and even before closed the door, swooned and fell. Another car passed him and possibly grazed his head. I was 2 cars behind this and saw it happen. As it was an unexpected event and there were people around, I was not too sure whether the man's head was hit by the door or the car that passed. The man who fell down started to bleed from his forehead just above the right eye. I was in 2 minds. I parked the car on the side of the road, got down came to that car and watched. The man driving that car also was an elderly man. He was shaken by the episode. People gathered around and started to ask questions. "What is the color and make of the car that passed by?" asked one person. Her blamed the driver for not noting the number. The driver was trying to put the man inside the car into the back seat and was struggling to do so. No one of the 50 or so people gathered around helped. One scooterist came from the opposite direction and blocked the door to ask some stupid questions of gossip value. He had to be shooed away to make way for the patient to be put inside the car. I helped the old man to do this. Then I volunteered to accompany them to a hospital leaving my car behind. I left the hospital only after making sure that the person was stable and his daughter arrived.
Whatever happened to our civic sense? Why do we hesitate to help people in distress? Is it the reflection of "me" attitude rather that "we"? Maybe like the nuclear family. We are distancing ourselves from serious problems - "As long as it is not me why should I bother" is one reason. "Why should I get involved in a police case?" is the other one. How on earth do we expect these people to help us in our crisis?
By helping them I got delayed elsewhere. I do not know whether I am right or the other 'wise' people are right. I am sure there ate more questions than there are answers. Sometimes the answers may be obvious and some times the answers may not come at all.
I suddenly remembered my childhood days when we were a big homogeneous group unconditionally helping each other. If a boy fell from a tree and got injured, we would stop playing, attend to him, give him water, take him to the nearest doctor who usually did not charge, get medicines take him home and tell only the mother (underplaying the seriousness) and avoid the father and disappear. We pledged to remain so for all time to come and help each other and other people also. I wonder whatever happened to the pledge!
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