Sunday, February 26, 2017

A nation of careless people

We are a  nation of careless people. We take things lightly, a little too lightly for our  own good. Recently there has been an explosion in a commercial area near where I live. Contradictory statements are evolving on daily bases relating to the nature and cause of the explosion. Some say it was a pre-planned terrorist activity, others say, a gas leak. Although I am not ruling out the possibility of a terrorist attack, a gas based explosion also seems plausible.
Only a day prior to that tragic event on Thursday I happened to walk into the staff lounge at my work place with another colleague. Upon entering the room both of us immediately became aware of a very sharp hissing sound. Walking towards the source of  the noise we came upon a couple of exposed and open ended pipes near the back of the room.  Another second was enough to make us realize that it was the sound of gas coming out from the pipe at full pressure. I quickly turned the valve off but by then the whole room was already full of gas. We quickly exited, opening all windows and turning the fans full on. Apparently some idiot plumber had come into the room a few minutes earlier to check on the pipes. The fact that he had not even bothered to check whether the valves was completely turned off or not before going back out to turn the gas supply on from the main supply port just goes to shows his casual attitude towards the whole thing.
An attitude we have sadly inherited as a nation.
How often do we stop to check if all the safety measures are in place before attempting some thing risky?
How often do we not utter the words that everything will be fine when we are about to do something which we know is pretty stupid and dangerous.
I have done this myself. We all have. Countless times.
I keep thinking about those turned on valves in our staff lounge. Had the plumber's mistake or negligence to be more accurate not been discovered in time, the consequences could have been devastating.
Sometimes it takes a tiny mistake to make us realize the errors of our ways and mend them.
It is time we learned that being cautious is not the same as being a coward.
It is high time we turn our vigilance up a few notches and start being more careful and responsible in our day to day matters of life .

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