The Road to be ‘Respected’….
Most of the best memories come from some old dirt road, the road that is never tempted to end, the road that is jewelled with the footprints of divine men. And this road illustrates life; it is the mirror to our progress, exemplified by the riders who have created a history to be traced. It gives me immense pleasure to walk through it, my road to adventure, progress, betterment and togetherness. But today ‘my road’ has become a synonym to accidents, pain, distraction and hence negativity.
Gone are the days when we would find roads with people walking or riding a bicycle on. The youth of today is allured with driving, more precisely I would say driving crazy. The whooping traffic, the honking horns and the sparkling red lights are what make them feel the rush in their adrenalin. And hence they are provoked to jump traffic, create cacophony of horns and feel electrified by the sparkling red lights that seem no different to them from the disco lights, dancing on the music of disguise. It is difficult to find them stuck in traffic as they themselves are traffic for the others. It was last month when a teenager driving a Mercedes ran over a young man and killed him in Delhi. And a couple of days before the newspapers were flooded with the news of a 19-year-old student’s ‘audacity’ in overtaking his top-end range rover, JD(U) MLC Manorva Devi’s son Rocky Yadav who allegedly shot Aditya Sachdeva, as his ego was hurt for for being overtaken by a Swift Dzire. Such kind of instances is so common to find in newspaper these days. Teenagers today are more impulsive, excitable and prone to taking risks and causing accidents. They lack the necessary ability to scan the road ahead, anticipate hazards and judge the level of danger they may encounter. Or maybe they are so distracted from the real scenario that they are stubborn to face the reality. And hence it has become critically important for all of us to channelize their energy and excitement into productive output. The youth is the hope for tomorrow; we cannot be negligent and hence loose our faith in tomorrow.
Roads are no place for adventure, and driving on public roads is no adventure anyhow. Living life is an adventure and not destroying one. Let the speed you desire from your bike or your car reside in your thought process, your decision making and your arms and legs. Let your brain overtake your own self again and again every time rather than overtaking one danger and falling into another. Let the road be respected for the journey it is bending towards rather than making it notorious for the coming generation to take lessons from. And lastly I would say, may the road rise to greet you, and not scare you.
No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn around, the road not taken is still waiting for you.
Audacity of hope.. 