WAS sipping tea in the back seat of my car last week, when my driver, a replacement for my chp who had gone on leave, suddenly braked, throwing scalding hot tea from my glass all over me, “Sorry sir,” he said as he looked in the rear view mirror. I rubbed the hot steamy liquid of my stained shirt, and grimaced with pain as I felt my skin already beginning to burn. “What happened?” I asked angrily.
“Driver in front braked, sir,” he said. “But I saw the traffic in front of him slowing down,” I said, “didn’t you see that?” “I was just watching the car in front of me sir!”
I wiped the stains off my shirt with water from my flask and pondered over what he had said: I realized like most drivers his eyes were only on the vehicle in front of him. His glance never went beyond. If the driver in front braked, he braked. If the fellow in front swerved, he swerved; his reactions were fixed, fixed by what was immediately ahead.
Whereas I had taught my permanent guy, who unfortunately had gone on leave, to look ahead and see the whole road: He had been taught to look far ahead and if he saw a traffic jam forming to decide on a course of action, sometimes even moving the car into a bylane, oftimes hugging the kerb and getting by. His shrewd eyes were always ahead, watching the whole scene, noticing patterns and being warned by them.
I straightened up in the rear seat, felt my tender burning chest carefully, found it was okay and settled down to watch the road outside, thoughts slowly forming in my mind. “How life,” I thought, “was like driving.”
Most of us speed through life looking only at the moment ahead, we press our feet down on the accelerator, tear down the highway of each hour each day, each year, till suddenly we come to a screeching halt as something gives way and we crash! We don’t look ahead to see warning signals.
We do not see the overall effect on our body as we indulge in habits that slowly wreck us, we work like mad horses, party like crazy animals, seeing only the present moment, not being aware of the days ahead, till one fine day as we lie in hospital bed or are wheeled into an addiction centre or stand outside the portals of a divorce court we wonder how it all happened.
Or, it could even be our political parties who are using freebies and communal hate in their election campaigns just now and are not thinking of what is going to happen to the country in the near future!
Ask this driver how it happened, and he’ll tell you he doesn’t know, but maybe just maybe you’re different; you want to look up and see the road ahead, you want to become aware of telltale signs and fasten your seat belt and slow down, check your engine oil, listen to the sound of your body and asses the state of your life.
Maybe, just maybe those sudden brakes my driver pressed that day may save your life or mine; then I will think of my tender burnt skin on my chest and say; it was worth the experience, it was well worth the pain..!
—Email: bobsbanter@gmail.com
