A lot of people tell me that they would like to help me with the foundation or with handling the unfortunate loss of my daughter, but they simply don’t know how..
Well, I have some friends who do both..help me with emotional support and support the cause of The Arundhati foundation. 
They support the foundation by trying to improve traffic safety taking some simple but effective steps and persevering .

One of my support in Mumbai is Savita Thakur, my friend since my school days. 
Savita regularly monitors the roads near her place of work and involves the corporator in helping repair them. The picture above shows the map of the area around Gulmohar Road which was her focus.

Her actions make a difference.
The potholes were filled within two weeks. 
I share her letter to the corporator Shri Dilip Patel and the before and after photographs of the problem areas on the roads..
Shri. Dilip Patelji,

I am a resident of Juhu Scheme.
Yesterday, I saw a young mother riding a two wheeler suddenly lose control of her vehicle and narrowly miss falling on the road. Startled, she stopped and turned back to see what it was. It was a pothole on 11th Cross Gulmohar Rd. Had she fallen, she would have been run over by the car behind her.
Until two years back, I felt the roads and their condition was not my responsibility.
In Sept 2014, my friend’s daughter, Arundhati Tambwekar, 24 years of age was riding pillion to her medical school in Vellore. Both the driver and she had worn helmets. Their two-wheeler lost control over a pothole on the road. Arundhati was run over by a truck.
My friend lost her precious daughter and the country an amazing doctor . She had just been awarded a gold medal by the most prestigious medical school in the country.
We read reports of accidents caused by bad roads in Mumbai ever so often. How can such avoidable tragedies be called accidents? These avoidable tragedies are NOT ACCIDENTS.
Dilipji, in the past, you have always promptly acted upon issues brought to your notice. I am therefore confident that you will ensure that those who are entrusted with maintaining our roads do their job and no more lives are lost due to bad roads.
For your reference, have attached herewith photographs of a fraction of the innumerable potholes encountered across a span of just a kilometer in Juhu Scheme.
Sincerely,

Savita Thakur

for  The Arundhati Foundation

Jan 15, 2017

The Arundhati Foundation took up the task of cleaning the footpath on Cambridge Road. It was strewn with debris, stones , bricks and sand after sewage pipes were laid on the road. As a result, a lot of people including children from a neighbouring school were forced to walk on a busy road.

The kids of St Meera’s School and PU College willingly joined us to lend a helping hand to senior volunteers.

I share this post by Ms Pratibha who happened to pass by. She stopped to inquire and was generous enough to get juice and biscuits for the youngsters.

“Aunty thank you for allowing us to help” the kids said to me. “It was a very satisfying experience to something good. And when people stopped by to appreciate us, it made us feel even better”
They further told me that they would like to volunteer for the foundation to spread the message on Road Safety !
I am so touched! These kids made my day.
The Arundhati Foundation thanks these kids and Ms Prathiba for their gesture.

Jan 7,2017

A Road Safety Awareness program was conducted at Hindu Balika Patasala ( HBP Indian School) Shivajinagar. This is one of the oldest schools in our city. Founded in 1854, even before the first War for Independence (1857) and even before the birth of Mahatma Gandhi in 1869! 
The children studying in this coeducational school come from the weaker sections of the society and from all religions. 
We found the children extremely receptive and eager to learn. They are pretty smart too! We conducted a pre and post test session to see how much the children benefitted from our session and measured over 82 percent improvement in performance.

Volunteers , Arun, Prakash, Nithish, Nganscho helped conduct the session.

The foundation will also sponsor tenth standard textbooks to the student who stands second in the final exam of ninth grade. The person who stands first gets a scholarship and hence we decided to encourage the student who stands second. 
The books will be distributed through the Aditi program. 
It gives us immense satisfaction to touch the lives of children and hopefully contribute a little to try and mould them into responsible young citizens.

Jan 3, 2017

The volunteers from St Meera’s conducted a road audit in the vicinity of the school premises. The CoRPS road safety audit form was used as a guide. The audit was conducted at two different times – when the school begins and when the classes end. The audit covered various aspects related to traffic density, traffic calming, road conditions, footpath conditions, signage, locality. The Ulsoor police station constables, and Mr Prathap of PotholeRaja joined in the afternoon session.

The students came up with several recommendations :

• Signage and patrolling to prevent people violating one-way rules
• calm the traffic near the school using rumble strips, signage
• designating drop zones for children to be dropped
• Define a zebra crossing to facilitate the children to cross the road
• Improve signage near the school

A detailed report with the observations and recommendations was  jointly signed by the Mr. Irfan a Khan, Principal of St Meera’s PU College; Ms Selva Kumari, Pricipal of St Meera’s School and Sanjay Tambwekar of The Arundhati Foundation. This report has been submitted to the Bangalore Traffic Police ( DCP East, and Ulsoor )

what you see in the picture above is a schematic used in the recommendations.

Dec 10,2016 :

This evening, the volunteers from ST Meera’s PU college conducted a road safety quiz at the School Fest they organised. The quiz was organised as a part of Safer Roads Safer Campaign by YSA UL and Trax. 
There were over 500 students from various schools in the audience. Tamil Selvan did a fine job as compere.

The first Prize went to the team of Poornaprajna School , the second prize by students of Bright English High School and the third prize by Sacred Heart Girls High School. 
The participants received gold. Silver and Bronze Medals for their performance .

The Best Overall Performance in the fest was also sponsored by Arundhati Foundation under its Aditi program. The prize went to Ms Agnes from Sacred High Girls High School. The prize was a gift voucher for thousand rupees from Sapna Book Store.

Dec 10,2016

The morning saw Shriya, Gauri, Raghav, Bhumi, Arya and Abhinav learning what Traffic management in Bengaluru is all about.

The Arundhati foundation together with Positive Strokes conducted an awareness program for these youngsters. Nikhil Kumar, a volunteer with Positive Strokes, and Anusha Jaishankar of Positive Strokes led the children in understanding good behaviour on the roads.

The children were quick to follow and help Positive Strokes in choosing drivers following Traffic safety rules. 
These drivers will now get certificates appreciating their behaviour on our roads.

A wonderful program devised by Positive Strokes organisation.

I had written a letter to the Hon Minister Shri Ramalinga Reddy with statistics, observations and suggestions regarding accidents pertaining to KSRTC and BMTC buses. I am grateful that the Hon Minister took time to go through it.

Sharing this reply with all friends of the foundation.

This letter was sent by the official concerned with the division which looks after accidents.
I am thankful to The Hon. Minister.
Thank you Sir

***

In continuation of your mail dated 25.05.2016 we deeply regret for the loss of invaluable life of your daughter at Vellore in a road accident on 9th September 2014. We are proud that a foundation has been started in the name of The Arundhathi Foundation (in memory of Dr Arundhati Sanjay Tambwekar).

​The following are the measures taken by KSRTC to prevent accidents and educate the crew.
a. Best vehicle maintenance practices are adopted to improve the safety aspects in operation of buses.
b. The selection process of drivers has been streamlined to ensure the selection of qualified and experienced drivers. Earlier the minimum qualification of drivers was 7th Std pass, whereas now, minimum qualification is 10th Pass.
c. The minimum age limit of drivers for the appointment in KSRTC has been raised from 21 to 24 years.
d. Electronic driver testing track is now used : extremely transparent system with more objective and no discursive, no role for manipulation, quicker than any other system. First of its kind in country. Driving test are video graphed.
e. The newly selected drivers are imparted necessary training about safe driving before sending them on schedule duties.
f. The drivers who have attained 40 years of age are made to undergo eye vision test once in every 2 years compulsorily.
g. Depots and line checking staff have been supplied with Breath-Analyzers to conduct surprise check on drivers.
h. Drug addict drivers are subjected to undergo de-addiction programme, which is a unique programme among State Transport Undertakings to avoid drunken driving.
i. To improve driving comfort buses are provided with ergonomically designed seats. To reduce driver-fatigue, power steering and synchromesh gearbox are being provided in the buses. The power steering avoids skidding of buses.
j. In mofussil services, the drivers with 5 years of accident and default free services are being awarded with Silver Medals and those with 15 years of accident and default free record are being awarded with Chief Minister’s Gold Medal, Cash reward and Cash Incentive every month.
k. For driver’s comforts upgraded crew rest rooms are provided at all the depots and major bus stands
l. For Night services & long distances routes are operated with fixed drivers and vehicles.
m. In order to refresh and to alert drivers between 01.00 am to 05.00 am for about 15-20 minitues rest is provided at 12 identified checkpoints in various sectors.
n. All type of vehicles are fitted the speed governor. Which are periodically checked by Divisional Mechanical Engineer.
o. Accident prone places are identified and same is displayed in the depots for the information of drivers.
p. The drivers found fully or partially responsible for fatal accidents are being placed under suspension immediately besides taking Disciplinary action.
q. The drivers with bad driving habits and accidents record are identified and deputed to the Drivers Training Institute for refresher courses regularly.
r. Action has been taken to display Emergency Exit signage’s inside the bus, the conductors have been advised to address the passengers about the usage of emergency door.
s. While booking crew for night service and long distance routes sufficient rest will be provided before sending them on next duty.
t. Only Senior skilled drivers who are imparted with rigorous training and qualified by Volvo Company are selected for operation of high end buses.
u. The Technical Staff maintaining Volvo buses have been well trained Volvo Company from time to time besides Volvo buses are maintained under supervision of Volvo Engineers.
v. Two fire Extinguishers are provided in Volvo buses for emergency fire hazards & the crew is trained to operate them
w. KSRTC buses are provided with emergency Doors/Exits for usage by passengers in case of emergency.
x. Information to the travelling public in Volvo buses regarding the operation of Emergency doors, First Aid Box, Roof Ventilator, Fire Extinguisher etc., which are provided in the bus. These information is also provided through video show at the beginning of the journey in the bus.
y. Banners are displayed in the major bus stations duly mentioned prohibiting carrying of explosives in the buses of the Corporation.
z. Road Safety day is be conducted once in every month.

I am pretty sure that each and every day in every city and town in India has at least one death in an accident. Sometimes a single day eats up the lives of many people. What is sad is that eighty percent of these deaths are totally preventable by the actions of people who drive these vehicles. Even the ones due to bad infrastructure like pot holes are preventable if the Govt, local bodies and public really care

It breaks my heart to read and see what is happening every single day. And everyday I re-live the death of my daughter.

In the horrific accident that happened on June 23, where eight young children died, three families lost both their children. The parents will most certainly go mad..I cannot begin to understand their pain.

This is a collective shame on us as a country and people. When is the govt going to bring in the road safety bill promised in 2014?

Yoga day is a great idea..When will we have the ‘ su yoga’ of having better roads? Better Road safety implementation ? When ? When?? When???

The above graphic is from The Hindu. To refer to the article in the paper, click here :
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/nearly-400-children-killed-in-road-accidents-in-state-last-year/article8762023.ece

27 Feb 2016 : The Drive Safely session on Road Safety was conducted at Indo-US MIM Tec Pvt Ltd at their Hoskote facility.

It was an engaging and interactive discussion with 50 engineers including safety officers. I guess the message did make impact. I am especially happy that Indo-US MIM plans to follow up with a separate session for their Dodaballapur plant, and also plans to put up posters on road safety in and around their premises.

Thanks to Mr Manoj Kabre (VP, Marketing) and Mr Bala Subramanian (CFO) for their support. And Mr Vijaydas (Safety Officer) for organizing the event.

A special thanks to Mr Manoj Kabre who has also spread the word amongst several friends and colleagues from other organizations. We hope to carry our message to their teams.

An anecdote from the event to share with you : The driver who picked us up from our residence that morning was Mr Prabhakar from Swift Travels. When we began our journey we told him to keep off his cellphone and avoid jumping any signals. His Hindi was very good, and so I asked him where he came from. He said “Varanasi”. He has come to Bangalore to become a better driver and learn English. Later he will go back to Varanasi, and hopes to have his own cab for tourists. We asked him to join our session. After the presentation, he expressed his sorrow for Aru’s accident, and promised he would always drive safely. He then asked me questions about “Blind Spots” and how to deal with them. Then, on the way home, he got a phone call. He pulled over and parked the car, and then took the phone. It was from his boss. He finished the call and we re-started. We thanked him for following our “defensive driving” lesson, and urged him to do so every time – not just because we were in the car! He promised to drive safely. Thank you Prabhakar, and spread the message amongst your friends.

We were very happy that Prabhakar internalised our message. Even if it makes a difference to one person, the session is worth the effort!

Here are a few pics from the event