{"id":317,"date":"2007-05-08T01:59:54","date_gmt":"2007-05-08T01:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/blog\/2007\/05\/08\/safe-or-sorry\/"},"modified":"2007-05-08T01:59:54","modified_gmt":"2007-05-08T01:59:54","slug":"safe-or-sorry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/2007\/05\/safe-or-sorry\/","title":{"rendered":"Safe or Sorry?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometime in April 2007, I shifted to a new role within my organization.\u00a0 The department I am now associated with, operates from an adjoining building that acts as an extension of the Head Office.\u00a0 This annexe building is fine in most respects, except for the fact that the lifts\/elevators are in a pathetic condition.\u00a0 As a result, going up and down from my desk on the fourth floor takes a lot of waiting.\u00a0 And, when the good ol\u2019 lift does<\/em> arrive, it takes only four people without a groan.\u00a0 Add a fifth one, and the \u201coverload\u201d siren starts its routine.\u00a0 In a building that employs more than a 1000 people, that can add up to a lot<\/em> of waiting time!<\/p>\n

That is perhaps the reason why, earlier today, one ingenious member of its workforce found a way to \u201cbeat the system\u201d, as it were.<\/p>\n

He was the fifth man to enter the carriage and, as soon as he stepped in, the \u201coverload\u201d siren went off.\u00a0 As long as the siren was singing its song, the lift would not respond to any buttons or close its doors.\u00a0 But, he\u2019d figured out that by stepping off the elevator, the siren would turn off and he could enter back into the carriage just a fraction of a second before its doors closed!\u00a0<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s what he did.\u00a0 And me, along with his other friends, went hurtling down to Mother Earth, knowing fully well that the wire that we were hanging by in this 20-year-old elevator was not equipped to take our load<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n

Now, I happen to work for one of India\u2019s leading financial service organizations.\u00a0 And I would assume that a majority of the people it employs would be reasonably educated and well-informed.\u00a0 That\u2019s what makes this incident even scarier.\u00a0 If the literate and the educated can resort to such a blatant disregard of safety norms, can we expect any thing\u00a0different\u00a0from the billion other folks out there?!<\/p>\n

As it turns out, over the past few days, I have been researching new cars too.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve spent quite a while looking for features like anti-lock braking system (ABS), air bags and electronic brake distribution (EBD).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frankly, the last time I was in the market looking for a car was over three years ago.\u00a0 That is perhaps why\u00a0I was a bit surprised to find that these kind of safety features only seem to exist in the top end of C-segment cars that cost upward of Rs. 800,000\/.\u00a0 Even in some of those, it was an optional component<\/em>!\u00a0 (The only exception being the trusted Maruti stable which seems to offer it as a standard inclusion in its top-of-the-line supermini hatchback – the Swift<\/a><\/em>)<\/p>\n

It makes me wonder: Do Indians who buy an automobile that costs nearly half a million\u00a0rupees not<\/em> regard \u201csafety\u201d high on their agenda?\u00a0 What else can possibly explain the hundreds of thousands choosing to buy a vehicle that does not even have air bags or ABS – technologies that have been available in the automotive world for decades<\/em>?!<\/p>\n

And, if that\u2019s the case for the well-offs and the well-to-dos of our society, what can be expected of the backoffice executive who chose to beat the system in my office building\u2019s elevator?<\/p>\n

Will we ever <\/em>learn that its better to be safe than to be sorry?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Update: Oct 2008<\/p>\n

In June 2007, I bought a Swift Zxi\u00a0and drove it happily<\/a> for over 16,000 kms.\u00a0 The post-purchase experience was in fact better than expected!<\/p>\n

However, in response to the family’s growing need for boot space and cabin room, I sold the Swift this month, and booked the compelling SX4 Zxi.\u00a0 Since its launch last year, the SX4 has admirably shown the Indian Automotive world that comfort and<\/em> style and <\/em>safety and <\/em>value is possible, all at the same time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This building is fine in most respects, except for the fact that the lifts\/elevators are in a pathetic condition. As a result, going up and down from my desk on the fourth floor takes a lot of waiting. And, when the good ol’ lift does arrive, it takes only four people without a groan. Add a fifth one, and the “overload” siren starts its routine. In a building that employs more than a 1000 people, that can add up to a lot of waiting time! That is perhaps the reason why, earlier today, one ingenious member of its workforce found a way to “beat the system”, as it were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-india"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naveen.bachwani.com\/greymatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}