The Shocking Indifference Of Delhites

I was on my way to office, Espire Infolabs, in the Santro car of my beloved colleague Mr Amit Bharti. While Amit was busy in driving the car and also responding to the relentless calls at his mobile (he is the Administration Manager at our organization, and therefore a very important person), I decided to browse through the pages of “The Times of India” that I had bought in the morning. And in the very first page I came across this news that left me, well, shell-shocked.


Man dies bleeding on road but busy city doesn't care

NEW DELHI: A callous, heartless city. Yet another incident, this time at the Ashram Chowk in south Delhi, showed exactly why the capital has earned this dubious tag. On Monday morning, a 52-year-old freelance journalist lay bleeding at the busy crossing for nearly an hour after his bike was hit by a speeding minitruck, without any sort of medical help coming his way.

The victim, Shams Tabrez, bled to death on the road.

Worse. Dr Anil Sharma, a neurosurgeon at AIIMS, who happened to be passing by and rushed to help the victim, was rebuked by other motorists for abandoning his vehicle on the middle of the road for the sake of a "dead man".


"When I tried to stop a few cars coming from the opposite side to take the victim to a hospital, they just refused saying they did not want their seat covers ruined. When I went back to him, the man had died. He could have lived if help reached him in time," Dr Sharma said. The doctor was going to AIIMS when he got stuck in a jam at Ashram. "I was told that the pile-up was due to an accident that had taken place 45 minutes ago. I got off from my car and rushed to the victim, who was lying in a pool of blood. Only two bikers had stopped by to help. They told me they had called up the police half an hour ago, but no one had turned up."




I have only one question. Are we, the proud Delhites, at all civilized? Or is it so that the fast pace of our life has robbed us of all our sensitivities and humanness? How could the people on the road let the man die in such a manner? How will they feel if such callousness is shown to any of their relatives or close ones under similar circumstances?

We are so smart in criticizing the apathy of the Indian politicians. We hold them responsible for everything – the slowdown in economy, the worsening law and order situation, and so on. Have we ever bothered to look at ourselves? Have we ever tried to identify the flaws in our characters, and rectify the same? How can we have the right to criticize our so-called leaders (some of whom are certainly intolerable), when we ourselves are burdened with so many flaws?

The unfortunate death of Shams Tabrez is certainly shocking for his relatives. But what they will find to be most shocking is the extreme callousness shown to him by his fellow Delhites at the time of distress. It is this show of insensitivity that will hugely aggravate the bereavement of Tabrez’s family. They will never forgive the callous onlookers who completely ignored the helpless man lying in a pool of blood, letting him to die a painful death. And make no mistake, the curse of Tabrez’s family will always loom on Delhi’s head.

Shame on you, Delhi! You do not worth being called a city. You are a hell!