16 March 2018

I visited Ramyam at their new office in the Crescent-4 tower at Prestige Shantiniketan. A group of 70 employees attended the session.

Based on the experience from the past sessions, I made some changes. After covering the important topics related to Defensive Driving, I picked a few of the commonly asked questions, and incorporated them into the presentation.

The section is titled “What about …”, and discusses a few topics:
“listening to music when driving”
“giving way to a pedestrian”
“giving way to an ambulance”
“using high beam at night”
“when using a taxi / auto”
“when riding pillion”

I found the audience to be very interactive when these points were discussed.
Maybe I will change the first part of my presentation based on this as well.

Thanks to my old colleague and friend Manoj KC for inviting me over to Ramyam.
And, thanks to Luman Francis who helped organize the event.
Here are some pics from the event.

Feb 16, 2018

We conducted a session on road safety awareness at Hewlett Packard’s campus in Bengaluru.
About 100 people attended the session.

There were some very interesting discussions during the Q&A:

* “Most people do not follow the rules”
My answer to this is always that the process starts from self, from within.
And, if you find others violating the rules, do not get into a confrontation.
There are ways to convey the message without picking a fight.

* “Tyre bursts are cause for accidents as well”
yes. and therefore preventive maintenance is important.
Defensive driving, in fact, covers many areas starting from the prepartion, to night driving, bad weather conditions, pillion, etc.
We touched only a few topics to address the issues that are most prevalent in the city.

* “Why don’t you do this for Ola and Uber drivers?”
I will be happy to! I need to get the opening.
I would also like to do this with the delivery boys of Amazon, Flipkart, Swiggy,…
I have some friends who can probably convey the message more effectively in Kannada.
But, every time I get into a taxi, I make it a point to tell the driver what is acceptable and what is not.
Particularly wrt cellphones, safe speed, jumping signals.
I also see that many taxis do not have seatbelts in the rear seats. And I make it a point to give this feedback.

* “Is listening to music considered to be a distraction?”
Listening to music on low volume is OK as long as it does not interfere with sounds from the road.
Listening with earbuds is a no-no since it cuts off the sounds from the road.
Reaching out to change music should be done when in a parked position.

* “A car / motorcycle can easily go under the rear of a truck if one is not careful”.
Couldn’t agree more … it can be very dangerous if sufficient space is not maintained.

* “When you see a ball rolling down the street, you can expect a child to come running after it”
That is exactly what defensive driving is about. Be aware of your environment. Be alert to anticipate!

* “How can I join your organization”
Do look up our site www.thearundhatifoundation.org.in
And get in touch with us with your ideas.
We can certainly take your help to further the message.

My sincere thanks to Kedar Vaze and HP for organizing the event.

Here are copies of the signed pledge.

3 Feb 2018

Today, we took the students of NPS, Indiranagar, for a field visit to the Traffic Management Centre, Bengaluru.
These are students of QuizShala – a program conducted by Walnut Knowledge Solutions.
Today’s program was a joint collaboration with Anusha Jaishankar’s Positive Strokes.

Shubhangi and Anusha had a interactive discussion with the students on road safety – they discussed the statistics, the challenges, and the need to acknowledge good behaviour on the road.  By giving them a positive stroke, we reinforce the good behaviour.

A few students shared their experiences – drivers overcome by fatigue, drunk driving, rash driving.  Then they turned on the systems to monitor the junctions. It was a “WOW” moment for the kids! They had not imagined such technology being used by the Bengaluru Traffic Police.

They went about looking for good behaviour : riders wearing helmets, good lane discipline, wearing seatbelts, stopping before zebra crossing, using signals when turning. While doing so, the bad behaviour on the road was very visible to them:
“Dude! look at that – he did not stop at the red light!”,
“That auto came all the way around the one behind and is now horizontal on the zebra crossing. He is blocking the others now!”
“These boys are not wearing helmets, and that one is wearing it on his hand”

They had suggestions for improving roadsafety : curbing overspeeding, educating people on use of helmets and safety belts. Some said that the simplest rule that could be followed was “Stop on Red”
All were in favour of imposing strict fines for the bad behaviour on the road.

At the end of the session, Sub-Inspector A.Khan and his team gave away certificates of participation to the students.

Thank you Bengaluru City Traffic Police, Positive Strokes and Walnut Knowledge Solutions – this collaboration makes a big difference.

Here are some pics from the event

Attached are a few more pics from the event on 18 Nov.

18 Nov 2017, Safety Quest 2017

We organized the first –ever Safety Quest on the eve of World Day of Remembrance 2017, to honour the victims and survivors of road accidents.

Yesterday’s event was the culmination of several months of groundwork. We had reached out to as many schools as we could, and also to our friends and colleagues. We were a little jittery about the turnout since the initial response was lukewarm. However, in the past 2 weeks, we saw the momentum pick up nicely. At the final count, we had 54 teams participating from 25 schools. Three teams from the Sri Manjunatha Vidya Samsthe came all the way from Malur. They took 3 hours to get to the venue!

We had over 170 people in the audience! We are truly amazed and humbled by the response.

Shubhangi kicked off the proceedings with the Welcome note. It is always difficult to share why we started The Arundhati Foundation. But we do want to give a face to the name, and let everyone know that the issue of safety is so real. Shubhangi also introduced our Guests of Honour – Mr. Venkitachalam ( Venki ) the ex-VP of Public Safety Mission at UL India, and Mr. Uday Vijayan who started Beyond Carlton in the memory of his son Akhil, a victim of the fire at Carlton Towers in 2010. They have been our mentors, our guides, and their presence at the function was a morale booster for us.

The preliminary round had 20 interesting questions – ranging from the local Bangalore Metro guides for the visually impaired and Badal Nanjudaswamy’s work to draw attention to potholes to the difficulty faced by Volvo in implementing software to recognize animals ( which is failing in Australia because of it is hard to track the sudden movements of Kangaroos ), to the challenges of transporting pistachios ( they can self combust ! ), to the no-selfie zones imposed by Mumbai police, and so on. The questions were in both English and Kannada so that we could reach a wider audience.

While we waited for the decision on the finalists, Venki engaged the students. “There is a science behind safety” he said as he got the students to think of the triangle of fire, and why acids are stored in bottles. “Safety is for life” he said. While the students favourite equations ( Einstein’s equation, Coloumb’s law, etc ) are important and interesting, not many would use these through their life. But the principles of safety, and safe behavior is required all the time. He also urged the students to teach others, and to take their share of responsibility in ensuring safety.

Six teams qualified for the finals. One team from NPS Koramangala with  Abhiram Nitin and Ashray missed the qualification by a whisker. The Quiz masters decided to grant them a consolation prize.

The finals were played over 5 rounds. Again a bunch of interesting questions related to : Madam Curie’s notebook, the life-saving drones developed in Iran, the giant fire extinguisher developed in Hungary, the development of the oxygen mask, the impactful ad by Volkswagen to draw attention perils of texting when driving, the proposed national emergency phone number for India.

Quiz master Raghav kept everyone engaged by including several audience-questions.

The top 3 prize winners got Amazon kindles and cash prizes. The 4^th, 5^th and 6^th place winners got Gift Coupons.

We are extremely thankful to all the parents and teachers who encouraged the students. Without their support, this would not have been possible. And thanks to the students themselves – their enthusiasm and engagement was outstanding. They are the real reason why we feel this event was a success.

Thanks to UL India and Beyond Carlton for giving us the support that allowed us to stage the event on this scale. A heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers who worked shoulder to shoulder to make it a success. And a loud shout out to the team at Walnut Knowledge Solutions for the quality of their content, and for making it such an engaging session.

We chose the name “Safety Quest”. It symbolizes a search for safety, in pursuit of safety, a journey towards safety. We hope that we have been able to instill some values of safety in the students, to implant a seed. Going forward, everyday experiences will either weaken or strengthen these values. Our hope is that the values remain intact. Indeed, we urge the audience to demonstrate leadership in this regard. Whether at school, or at work, or at home, or in public places, you can continue to demonstrate a positive attitude towards safety. You can continue to demonstrate safe behavior.

Stay Safe!

Here are a few more pics :

This is a belated blog post. In September, we responded to the Red FM Pothole Challenge. Here is a brief note from the producer Moushmi Manek.

***

Thank you very much for taking the time out and agreeing to be a part of our morning show on Red FM and of course for coming forwards and supporting The Red FM Pothole Challenge! We are very thankful to you for having come on-air with us!

Here is the link that we played on-air. Please do share it with your friends and family and encourage them to be a part of the campaign as well.

Sanjay’s Talk

Shubhangi’s Interview with Disha Oberoi

I must say, you have really rattled and inspired many a Bengalureans to come forward and take road safety seriously. We had messaged pouring in after we aired your link, all showing solidarity with you.

Once again, thank you very much, and we will keep going with our efforts to make sure we can do as much road safety awareness as possible.

Regards,
Moushmi Manek

Oct 14, 2017

The MLA Academy of Higher Learning was started in Aug 2006, an offshoot of the  90-year old Malleswaram Ladies Association. It offers courses in B.COM, M.COM and BBM. Ms Santoshi Ramu, Professor and Coordinator, got in touch with us after the voice clips were aired on Red FM during the campaign against potholes last month. The Academy was keen to do a session on Road Safety as a part of Institutional Social Responsibility Initiative.

Our session was scheduled for 12:30 PM – after the classes on Saturday. We had a sizable attendance with over 150 students. The children were probably eager to get home! So when Ms Santoshi began the session saying “please be attentive for the next 1 hour and 30 min”, there were groans from the audience!

Shubhangi assured them, that we would make it worth their while, and not keep them for 90 min.

And indeed, once the session started, there was a good engagement from the audience.  Shubhangi’s appeal touched them in many ways. And in the end, they came forward to share.
* A student shared about her uncle’s accident.
* Another girl felt overwhelmed with the emotion talking about her mother urging her to take care on the road
* The staff remembered 2 promising students, and how the promise was snuffed out due to road accidents. In a way, our road safety session was a tribute to those departed souls, and a call to action and defensive driving to the students.
* And a girl came forward to say that she felt the time was most well spent!

As usual, we ended with the pledge. We always emphasize that the pledge to drive safely is a promise to oneself. It was heartening to see the students come forward to sign the pledge.

Thank you Ms Santoshi for the opportunity to spread the word on Road Safety, and to all the students and staff for their participation.

Sep 1, 2017

My old colleague Soumitra Sen (Soms) reached out to me last month.  He is now the General Manager at Netsurion.  A young engineer at his office had met with an accident riding a 2 wheeler, and Soms asked me to sensitize his team about road safety.

We planned the session at 6 in the evening to get good participation during the end of one shift and start of another.
Our presentation is now updated with the statistics from 2015, including the age and gender distribution.

It was heartening to see about 70 employees joining the session. The concept of Defensive Driving will now be well understood by the attendees! I liked the engagement during the discussion after the talk. The topics included “How to define overspeeding?”, “Bad time management is the cause”, “Potholes and bad roads”.

As Soms observed “We spend a lot of time of our life on the roads! It is imperative that we pay attention to safety on the roads”.

Thanks to Soms and Geetha for organizing the event, and their whole-hearted support to The Arundhati Foundation.

A few pics from the event :

July 18, 2017

Mr Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, an alumnus of IIT Mumbai and IISc, has been the driving force behind the Aryaan Study Circle in Goa. With the vision of directing the students potential to the optimum, the Aryaan Study Circle and The Mushtifund Saunstha joined hands and floated a new unique and unaided higher secondary school named The Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School, Panaji to provide a better ambiance to the students of Goa.  The school has shown an impressive track record over the past several years.

A couple of weeks ago, we had the opportunity to address about 100 students of Std XI aspiring to the best institutes in the country.

The first part of the talk was motivational :  thriving on the challenge, continuously raising the bar for oneself, self-confidence and self-discipline, and enjoying the journey.

We then segued to Road Safety. Shubhangi linked the two talks by urging the students to ensure that their hard work is not upset by lack of caution on the road. We trimmed our talk to address 5 key points :
* Protect yourself First : Wear a helmet / seatbelt
* Slow Down : A normal speed with get you where you want
* None for the Road : Drinking and Driving do not mix
* Say No to Distracted Driving : Hands Free is not Risk Free
* Mind the Gap : Keep the distance and be aware of blind spots

To tune the talk to the, we discussed with the help of Physics and Biology ( difficulties from skull and head injuries, effect of speed on stopping distance, field of vision and blind spots, effect of alcohol on our body, distance traveled when distracted for a couple of seconds). We also tried to inspire the would-be engineers with some examples of innovations in road safety ( the seat belt, intelligent braking )

The children were very receptive, and their response was very heartening to us. The boy who stood up to give the vote of thanks, tore off his prepared speech and spoke spontaneously, urging his classmates to take road safety seriously.  The faculty also joined in signing the pledge.

As always, our fervent hope is that our effort influences at least 1 person to take a positive step towards safety of self and others on the road.

We thank Mr. Vyankatesh Prabhudessai for giving us this opportunity to address the students at Mushtifund Aryaan, and we hope to make this a lasting partnership.

Here are some pictures from the event.