Caution
By: Navin (October 7th, 2008)
Saturday night drive back home almost became a horror. I was driving home on an unusually busy stretch as people were rushing to celebrate the yearly Navratras. The traditional dresses and well lit buildings were trying to remove the otherwise gloomy situation in the stock markets and the peoples psyche.
Well, it does not matter much though for youngsters who were just out to have a good time and they want to make it a memorable moment of their lives. Boys and girls, in the most happening years of their lives, do not know what struggling in life means, their pocket money and trendy gadgets and accessories is all they want to have and desire for.
A few of them on their bikes that night would have been out to make it another great night. All of them were on the latest and fastest bikes. They make such a roar with those intermittent acceleration, that it’s hard not to notice them. I could almost feel these young men come roaring on their bikes, with the jarring making you alert and want to stick to your lane, lest those swerving bikes get stuck in to you.
I was just expecting them to pass by but it did not. The first bike just fizzed past while the second one also did, but one pothole in the middle of the road scared the driver who applied those brakes and then what followed was chaos. Two more young men, on the third bike just rammed in to the second bike. I saw those two young men, all dressed for the occasion, flying off their bikes and landing very close to my tyres.
As one of them who fell, saw the lights of vehicles behind them, I could see that he was seeing death in front of him. He was just hoping in that split second, that it was not his last breath. But thankfully I was going very slowly and all the vehicles behind had stopped just in time to avoid a gory end to the incident. The young men barely managed to live. They got on to their feet and limped across the road to safety.
The new and shining bike had lost quite a few of those expensive accessories. Nobody was hurt, just a few bruises here and there, torn clothes and shattered glasses lie on the road. I was thinking to myself, had I also been a few knots swifter, then probably much would have changed in many peoples lives.
Speed kills, they say. But it probably has chosen to give another chance to this young man. It will revisit many in the coming nights of festivity, taking with it many families and many hopes.
This might sound like another public interest message, like those which we see on smoking, alcohol and unsafe sex. But friends, do not look at such things and overlook them because of the present pleasure that they give. Carefully study the destiny of the carriers of such vices and you shall shudder and walk in the right ways!
In the Bible a songwriter says
For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
From their callous hearts comes iniquity;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance.
They say, “How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?”
This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.
But he goes on to say
When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me
Till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
So do not be swept away by the temporary pleasures when the final destiny calls for good counsel and walking in the right ways.