By 10 am, the news was out that the huge pile-up along NH 8, MG Road and all other offshoots in Gurgaon this morning was due to a major accident, that in turn, was triggered off, quite literally, by a routine gang war between criminals from Hayatpur going about their bloody business.
It did seem crazier than usual, but in Gurgaon, our tolerance levels are tested so expertly on every front daily that it takes a lot to faze us. But this was extraordinary in some ways - an innocent autorickshaw driver, parked by the wayside, was crushed to death under the gangster- carrying SUV which swerved to dodge a flurry of bullets.
Gunmen opened fire on the SUV. Two cars toppled over while one autorickshaw was mangled.I live in Gurgaon, and like many other brave souls was attempting to cross the madness that is IFFCO Chowk on any morning just after 9 am, to drop my three-year-old to playschool located in the safe premises of a condominium very close to the busy junction. Traffic jams are par for the course here. As are roads that become canals in the monsoon rains, death-trap potholes the size of the moon's craters, aggressive and clueless call-centre cab drivers and general indiscipline with not a cop in sight. But the sitting ducks that we are, we take it all in our stride, and I for one, look at my daily commute on this chaotic route as 'quality time' spent with my child as she (ironically!) bursts into the national anthem at the sight of the Indian flag at the Westin, or counts the number of pink tuk-tuks she spots, or just tries to make amusing sense of the mayhem outside.
But today, enough was enough!
It enrages me that even an otherwise non-paranoid mother like me needs to add to their list of dangers lurking at every corner the possibility of their child being caught in a crossfire in broad daylight! As if the NCR's polluted air that is choking their lungs, the pizza delivery abusers hanging around on staircases, skating coaches on the prowl for young victims, and the helicopter-size dengue-bearing mosquitoes breeding on the heaps of garbage were not enough?
I'm not being alarmist at all. I'm just angry and distraught, as the reality of what could have been sinks in as I sit in the comfort of a secure and swanky office. My daughter and I could have been in the midst of it all, give or take a few minutes. As could so many other innocent people going about their business on a busy workday morning.
Unless we really sit up and act, very soon the "Wild West Gaon" that is Gurgaon will overtake any semblance of a Millennium City dream that everyone is constantly trying to sell on fancy real estate hoardings and glossy magazines. It will be at the junction, where these two hugely disparate worlds meet, that any hope for a flashy future for this city will come crashing down in a glory of gunfire.
And it is in this disparity that the crux of the problem lies. Not just in Gurgaon. In Mumbai. In Delhi. In Kolkata. Everywhere. We insulate ourselves further and further and retreat into our secure cocoons, oblivious to the world that lies outside. We don't engage with it, we are not exposed to it. We like to wish the reality away in our single-minded pursuit of our life's goals. It's time to stop being passive onlookers and get involved in some way to find solutions if this is where we want to bring up our children, and if this is not the legacy we want to leave them.
The accident caused a huge jam on the MG road in peak traffic hours.The Whatsapp group of pre-schooler parents stopped pinging on my phone after we all updated each other on the traffic situation this morning and the details of what had happened were exchanged. Then pick-up time approached around noon and we were all back to traffic advisories about the best routes to follow to school. But what group is going to address the larger parent and citizen voice that needs to speak out louder, reach out further and to the right people? What app is going to connect all like-minded people and mobilise them to action that goes beyond a smartphone interface? We need to find ways to broadcast the angst we collectively feel, instead of settling down to a comfortable complacency in our drawing rooms. Who is going to garner a collective conscience or spearhead collective action? After all, every seemingly stray incident like the one that occurred this morning affects us in one way or the other. It concerns the future of our children, the society that we live in, the cities we inhabit and the country we constantly want to feel optimistic about.
(Payal Kohli is a journalist and mother.)Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.