By Radhacaran das
Hare Krishna
Today marks 7 years to the day since my spiritual master, HH Tamal Krishna Goswami and Vrindavanisvari Mataji passed away in fatal car crash on the way to the Calcutta airport. My godbrother Aghabit prabhu was also badly injured in that crash.
Today I have a godsister and a friend at the Calcutta hospital after nearly losing their lives in a similar car crash.
How many more precious lives are we going to sacrifice to a stupidly managed taxi run. I call very loud and clear and I beg for the Mayapur and Vrindavan Management, for the devotees worldwide and for all the taxi drivers, private car drivers traveling at all hours of the day and night, both between Delhi and Vrindavan and Calcutta and Mayapur, TO WAKE UP and DO SOMETHING.
I know it’s India and India in some areas seems unmanageable (if not everywhere), but measures can be taken to prevent or reduce risks of accidents. The Mayapur and Vrindavan Managements should discuss those measures and put them into place immediately. GBCs should get involved too. Some of the things that can be implemented are:
1) All taxi drivers taking devotees to be thoroughly checked for hours of sleep.
2) No taxis to leave the dham at night or early hours of the morning.
3) Devotees to be asked to reconsider not rushing to catch flights or trains and stay overnight before catching a cab.
4) Car drivers’ driving history thoroughly checked. Many don’t even have a license and no car insurance.
5) Allowed only one run per day.
6) Car insurance
7) Seat belts
8) Devotees’ private insurance
9) Selection of drivers who work to and from Mayapur and Vrindavan
10) Think of going by train. What is the rush?
11) Educating and informing devotees who use private taxis and drivers about the dangers of sitting in a car driven by unqualified drivers.
Given the fact that accidents may not always be caused by the driver but by the insane Indian road traffic, even more emphasis should be placed on the drivers.
Syamasundar prabhu and his wife nearly lost their lives 2 years ago and others fell victim of the same fatality after them and more recently on the same roads. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Cars in India nowadays drive faster, but drivers are as good as rikshaw wallas and those new cars don’t run on western freeways, they run on badly maintain medieval roads in the midst of mad traffic. Why do we think that we are immune? It could happen to anyone, any day.
It is time ISKCON Mayapur and Vrindavan take very strong measures, as far as they possibly can to prevent those horrific accidents to occur. That IS a responsibility to take for Srila Prabhupada.
Let’s open the discussion and stir up ideas and recommendation and ACT NOW before someone else ends up in ICU.
your servant Radhacaran
I am glad that Radhacaran Prabhu has written this letter urging the leaders in Mayapur and Vrindavan to try to impose regulations regarding hours of service, proper licensing and training on the taxi drivers that are used regularly by the devotees. The job of making travel to and from places of pilgrimage safe is as important as putting on the festivals which attract the pilgrims in the first place.
I and my party of 4 experienced a near fatal incident a year ago on our journy to Kolkata airport from Mayapur. The driver was trying to pass a long line of trucks but couldnt make it past the final truck before an oncoming truck blocked him. Fortunately all the vehicles locked up their brakes simultaneously and our Tata Sumo screeched to a halt just inches from the oncoming truck ‘s front bumper. We questioned our driver later and he complained of being forced to drive continuously without enough break-time between trips.
I hope that management addresses this matter with the utmost urgency, particurly in the matter of driver licensing, vehicle registration, insurance and maintenance, regular safety training, and the use of drivers’ log-books from which a page has to be turned in to dispatch every day. The devotees who run taxi-businesses at our temples have a serious responsibility for instituting these safety precautions. Their responsiblity does not end with simply arranging a car and taking some commission.
The war on the road is not confined to the land of India. Indians like to travel and bring their driving expertise to the safe streets of Australia. I recently experienced a situation were a driver, overtook on the otherside of the street, as I approached a roundabout. To my surprise the driver was wearing a turban and talking on a mobile phone, while driving at a speed of 80 kms an hour. This is not my first encounter. As a form of entertainment, I now tally how many dangerous Indian drivers I encounter on my journey from A to B. So I wish you luck and if you happen to improve the conditions in India say a little prayer for the rest of us.
Dear Radhacaran Prabhu,
Please accept my humble obeisances. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
Thank you for this useful letter and suggestions. After seeing death face to face on the highway Delhi-Mathura (Vrndavan) two years ago, I have thought very seriously what to do to protect devotees from dangerous Indian roads.
In my humble opinion, I think that Indian taxi drivers will not change. Even if they fulfill all the above expectations, devotees will be in danger, because others on those roads drive crazy and nobody gives the way, everyone has to be first.
There is no traffic discipline on Indian roads.
There would be improvement to some extent if ISKCON authorities start to consider your points, and put them into practice.
But if I have to be a little cynical: the safest way for our devotees to reach Vrndavan and Mayapur by taxi is if ISKCON could build our own ISKCON roads (one from Delhi to Vrndavan, and the other one from Kolkata to Mayapur), just for devotees, and nobody else. So that there are no drunk track drivers, who cross over live people on roads, no government buses, and preferably no local hired taxi drivers, but few cars, that could be rented by our devotees who can drive themselves, as they drive in their own countries, respecting traffic discipline. Of course it sounds like utopia. There are two main problems about the utopia: acceptance of our proposal by the government, and money.
Your humble servant,
Sundari Radhika dd
Another solution is that we should become so perfect in our hearing and chanting that we can travel like Narada Muni, or in transcendental Vimanas.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, they told us that by the year 2000 we would all be flying around in little maneuverable flying saucers that could seemingly defy gravity, like we saw on “The Jetsons” cartoon show (or in the New York World’s Fair).
Our “space age” technology did not keep up with the hype (although we can now watch the Mayapur festival in real time on our laptop computers, or even our iPhones — Hopefully not while driving, though). :-)
I know it sounds a little far-fetched to think that we can become master yogis like those described in “Easy Journey to Other Planets” (but no less so than the idea of private ISKCON roads from Delhi and Kolkata to Vrndavan and Mayapur, IMHO). It is possible, however. It may even be considered our duty (although it is less clear whether, having obtained this mystic opulence, we should openly display it).
I would rather fly by dint of perfection of yoga (bhakti yoga) than by George Jetson’s flying saucer. [I can hear you say, “When pigs fly!” I guess I walked right into that one.]
:-)
But in the mean time Radhacaran’s suggestions are more practical. Especially the train idea. At least to Mathura the Taj Express is a good alternative.
To Mayapur we may eventually go by boat (is there a decent way to get from Dum Dum airport to Mayapur by train?), or keep risking our lives on that particularly bad stretch of highway.
Ultimately, cars are not very safe wherever we go, and this whole world of kali yuga technology produces fear, anxiety, stress, angst, irritability. I’ll never get used to cell phones going off everywhere, and people walking around with ear buds seemingly talking to themselves like schizophrenics.
I believe very few people were ever killed in ox-cart collisions. However, most of us have to keep up with the hectic pace of life and cannot join the pada yatra party from Kolkata to Mayapur. It might be nice if we could. Even better than a golden Vimana from opulent Vaikuntha, we could travel like real associates of Lord Caitanya.