Hit-and-run

The other day, I was on my way to the market just outside the university when a crowd in the middle of the road caught my attention. On reaching nearer, I saw a middle-aged woman lying in a pool of blood. She had been hit by some vehicle.

Everyone around was a silent spectator. With great difficulty I persuaded a bike-rider and carried her to hospital. But the doctors there refused to admit her saying it was a case of road accident and required police approval before she could be admitted. While I was arguing with the doctors to start the treatment and assuring them of completion of legal formalities in the meantime, some policemen came to the hospital. One of them said they had been informed that the person who had hit the woman had carried her to hospital. He intimidated me to write on a piece of blank paper accepting my involvement in the accident!

Of course I refused to do so. But I was shocked beyond words at the attitude of the police, the doctors, as well as the crowd at the accident spot.

Sachin Kumar Singh,

Room No. 45, S.R.K. Hostel, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi -221 005