He put his steps like a tiny robot. He was so tense till he
got each foot on the grass as he moved forward, shaking his body discretely.
And tremendous joy on his face as he kept each foot down. Yes, I am talking
about a little boy who is about to start learning how to walk. Last evening I
saw him in the park, trying to walk in that green lawn. But there were two
super efficient and cautious big robots beside him, both sides. They were his
parents, preventing him from not falling on that smooth lawn but also literally
not allowing him to walk freely!
I had to go to Annamma
teacher’s house to fetch milk in the morning at 5:45 every day, she was
moonlighting with her cow business! This was in my village when I was just 12
years old. Teacher’s house was 2 KMs away from my home. There were 2 big challenges
on the way.
First challenge, I had to go through a paddy field of 200m
stretch, walking on that bund. I myself had seen snakes crossing that bund
couple of times. If one of them bit me, and if I shouted, there would be nobody
in that stretch to hear my shouts, but for those snakes, who do not have ears
anyways! What I used to do was run as fast as I could, to reduce the duration
of “scary period” and also to make sure that if at all I stamped on a snake, it
should not get enough time to bite me! No snake bit me.
Second challenge was a canal, water body. It was around 12
feet wide and could be 5 to 6 feet deep. I never used to look on the other side
of the canal to see how far it was. I never used to look below and see how much
water was there in the canal. My focus was only on the next step on that bare
minimum flat surface available on that perfectly cylindrical coconut trunk of 1
foot dia, which was used as a bridge ! I never fell in that! (I didn’t know
swimming, don’t know even now. Not that I didn’t try to learn, narration of those
episodes later! Purely out of context now!!!)
Were my parents concerned about my safety, yes they were more
than anybody else. But such accidents or fatalities were not heard of in the
area. Not only me, many children of my age used to do those things, more often
than me. There was a general sense of confidence that nothing will go wrong,
the environment made them believe so.
What is the scene today on a busy Bangalore road? When a school
child tries to cross the road in a traffic signal that too in a working
condition, with two cops stand alert to make sure that people give some respect
to those green/amber/red lights, the parent holds the child’s hand tightly and
guide him/her to cross the road. One may say, it is required in this era and
under these conditions. I agree. But, that snake on the bund or that narrow cylindrical
bridge on a water canal was no less life threatening than the fast approaching
red Air Conditioned bus on the street today. But, we parents of these times keep
hearing accidents or crime incidents every other day, which makes us less
confident than parents of those days.
I had a college friend who was extra cautious. Anything he
buys he will inspect thoroughly. One day he bought a text book. He literally
went through each page to check whether if it was printed fine, for that matter
if all pages existed continuously! It took some time. He returned to hostel to realize
that last chapter was missing! He forgot to check whether all chapters did
exist! So one needs to be cautious comprehensively covering all dimensions.
Be a little more extra cautious from April onwards. Regularly
check your bank transactions especially if your bank is a public sector one.
Microsoft is getting cautious. They say the Windows XP ( Do you remember this
operating system?) support will be withdrawn from Apr 8th as XP is vulnerable
to security threats. 35% of systems in banking sector still use XP. As such after working on this system for 12 long years,
some of the staff are still struggling to press the right key on their keyboards.
One can imagine the complications involved, once they migrate to Windows 7/8.
There is every likelihood that your money gets transferred to my account, without
your knowledge. So be careful. Me too!
Indian cricket team needs to be much more cautious now than
ever. “Beating India no longer an upset” says one of the rival fast bowlers,
that too from Bangladesh!
Yes, one needs to be cautious. But remember that generic rule
applies here also, like for any other man-made or natural phenomenon. There is
an optimum level, below or above that level, it may no more be efficient. You
would have seen your speedometer in your car. There is a green zone 35-45 KMPH.
That is the speed range at which one gets maximum fuel efficiency. So try to
pedal smoothly at that range while exercising caution, optimally. Of course one
can go only at 25 KMPH on many of the Bangalore roads. Of course one has to go
at very high speeds while chasing a thief or while participating in Grand Prix.
( Today I heard somebody drove a racing car at 435 KMPH breaking the previous
record of 431 KMPH ). One can’t look at efficiencies while being cautious in
such extreme conditions! All other times try to be in the green zone, be
cautious to the best level required.
No comments:
Post a Comment