What lessons can we learn from Pallavi?

Young Pallavi Purkayastha was brutally attacked and killed by her building’s security guard inside her apartment in Mumbai. This is not just a sad incident, it rings alarm bells for all us who live in large towns.

Big cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are bustling with singles, and couples who work late into the night. This often leaves the woman alone in the apartment. Add to that the fact that many security agencies tend to hire shady personnel because of their easy availability and lower cost. These are urban truths that shan’t change anytime soon. And this puts our lives at risk.

So then what can you do as an individual to keep safe? Here are some thoughts that come to mind immediately: Keep good relations with your neighbours, even if you don’t like them very much. Store their cell numbers for use in an emergency, and give them your contact details. (This will also be helpful in case of a medical situation.) Few of us bother to make an attempt to be friendly with our neighbours. This is a mistake.

Demand that your building’s security personnel get their names registered at the local police station. If your building society isn’t co-operating in this matter, you can call the cops directly and ensure this gets done. This is also valid for the domestic help and other workers who have access to your house. And if you can afford it, install a security door and/or a CCTV camera outside your entry door.

All the above are obvious suggestions, and yet many of us choose to ignore them. Because of that same old failing of ours: Dude, shit happens to someone else, not me.

However, Pallavi’s death has provided another specific warning. She did not latch her door from the inside. Because this would have barred the entry of her boyfriend, who would often be working later than her. The mistake she made was to carelessly drop her keys on a table located right next to the entry door. It was from here that her killer quietly slipped them out. You have to store the door keys in a safe spot; the best place, to my mind, would be inside your bedroom cupboard.

It is these simple little precautions that can save lives. Do add your own suggestions.

Yes, we all make errors, that’s human. But we must be really stupid if we don’t learn from other people’s costly mistakes.

We don’t deserve freeways

As many as 27 people died in an accident on the Mumbai/Pune expressway on Monday morning. With many more injured. Ever since the expressway became operational in the year 2000, hundreds of people have perished on it. (And there have been many accidents on the fancy Sea Link as well.)

Strange, don’t you think? With large 3-laned one-way roads, one would have thought chances of collisions would be minimal, if not totally eliminated. So then what the hell is going on?

Here’s the problem: People in India are not ready for freeways. We are far better off with cramped roads and bumper to bumper traffic. I have driven on the Mumbai/Pune expressway on numerous occasions, and here’s what I have noticed:

Very heavy, over-laden trucks don’t just operate freely, the drivers often stick to the right lane of the expressway, in complete disregard to rules of highway driving. The drivers are often pissed drunk and badly over-worked. Impatience, restlessness and sleep are bound to take their toll. And they never get reprimanded by the highway patrol. Should there not be a regular clampdown on these guys at the toll nakas?

Untrained or semi-trained young car drivers go ballistic on the expressway. This is like their huge break from city conditions, and they use the opportunity to test their ‘skills’. Quite naturally, many lose control of their vehicles. They over-speed, abruptly cut lanes, don’t maintain a safe distance and panic in a dangerous situation. How is it possible to control this in a corrupt nation where driving licenses are doled out like chana watana? And where some bikers ‘mysteriously’ slip onto the expressway?

Next. Most people don’t follow basic vehicle maintenance procedures. They will hit the expressway even if the car tyres are balding badly, and checking air pressure before driving out is considered a total waste of time. This ducking of simple safety measures proves even more costly at nights and during the monsoons. Speaking personally, while driving on the expressway, I don’t just keep my eyes on the road and hands on the wheel (as Jim Morrison advised), I keep a sharp look out for moronic drivers and suspicious vehicles. Is this the way to enjoy a freeway drive?

Basically, the complete disregard that Indians show to fellow citizens in all walks of life (spitting on the streets, screaming at restaurants, jumping queues, etc), gets spilled over to the highways. With lethal results.

And since we aren’t going to change our ways anytime soon, I think we should forget about constructing more freeways. We don’t deserve them.