Keep the issue alive…

Time for more than just cosmetic make-overs of school buses

Sometimes no matter how good your (read mine) intentions are, life takes over. I had sworn to myself that I would put up at least one post per week. Do your math and you will realise that that is one more resolution down the drain. I have made a few other resolutions – but I have another 11 months to not do them.

But it was not just laziness that caused this lapse in blogging. It was a combination of a bad bout of cold (the kind that keeps coming back or… maybe never went away) and worse still, a numbing sense of ennui, courtesy a rather ugly incident on a school bus in Dubai. My daughter studies in that school. My daughter is 5. My daughter has often been the last one to be dropped off. But luckily it was not my daughter who was raped by a bus driver and two conductors. No. It was someone else’s daughter. A 4 year old. And while there are innumerable 4 year olds the world over suffering untold trauma due to war, famine and adult perversion, this incident hit home. Cause in this case, more than any other, it could just as easily have been my kid.

It has taken a while but finally I am able to write about it without having my heartbeat race up. It is also I guess in a way the right time to write about it cause leading media houses in Dubai who were writing about it, and shedding light on the issue of child safety and better protection for our kids on buses, have stopped writing about it. This is a small piece to keep the issue current. A drop in the ocean. Just two of you may read this piece, or maybe a few more or maybe none. But I think in today’s world where action is taken, not based on right or wrong, but based on popularity votes and media sound bytes, everyone must keep talking, writing, knocking on doors and generally making their voices heard. The organisations out there (including all the schools and transport providers) should know that the pressure will not let up and they will not be able to relax back into laziness and negligence. This in a way applies to parents too.

Strangely enough, an incident like this also brings to light a lot of our hidden traits – good and bad. Parents have got together in various forums. And while some step up and act and do their best given the circumstances, others sit and whine (in my case, write), while still others immaturely hit out in anger and frustration at any moving target. And no, the focus of this blog is not to focus on the immature ones. But to say thank you. To the ones who are taking time out to sit and discuss steps and engage the school and other forums and organisations in dialogues in order to achieve common goals. Thank you. Your choice, to give up on that extra hour of weekend snooze, to forgo the relaxed family lunch and the weekend outing in favour of sitting with a bunch of other parents and thrash out the points to be presented to the school, is appreciated.