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

JUNE 13, 2016

It was a pleasure to be of some help to the Ashoknagara Traffic Police.

A big Thank you to Mr Raju Naik for his sincere and earnest help rendered to all his colleagues. He was instrumental in seeing that 80 police personel got raincoats.

The simple , well organized and sincere gathering we had was so much in line with what Aru believed in..
It was a pleasure to interact with ACP CEntral Division Mr Nataraj and Inspector Mr. Mohd. Siraj. Mr Nataraj encouraged his troop to help accident victims even if it meant going beyond the call of duty. We would like to thank both of them for being around to encourage the personel and the foundation.

We will partner with the police station to see that the personel get a refreshers training in advanced first aid.
To Mala Shyam and Shyam Kokku, the twenty happy police personel you directly sponsored say a big Thank you..
Also Team @ Travel Zone OPH road Shivajinagar. Thank you for your help in sourcing the right kind of raincoats.

A couple of more pics here :

Potholes have reappeared on the Bangalore roads after brief rains. see link

The condition deteriorates pretty quickly if action is not taken. Bangalore is a regular witness to accidents due to potholes. Some that are acknowledged are noted here and there are many more that do not get recorded as such. The injuries are far more than the fatalities.

Please take a step to bring about the change that you want to see in Bangalore. Artist Baadal Nanjudawamiy uses his creativity to draw attention to the menace. The pictures above speak volumes about his good work.

For most of us, this is difficult. But we can do one simple thing.  Every one of us sees and experiences potholes on our paths – on the street where we live, on our way to work, on the way to our weekend recreation, and so on.   Use BBMP’s Sahaaya website, and log a complaint about the pothole that bothers you. Select Complaint category as Road Maintenance, and Complaint Type as Potholes.  Mark it using the map provided. It will take just 5 minutes.  It gets noted, it gets tracked.

Please do it! now! Go to bbmp.sahaaya.in

Today, the first Sunday of the month (3rd April 2016),  The Arundhati Foundation took up the activity of filling potholes on CAMBRIDGE ROAD. We planned to fill two of them – a big one right opposite St Meera’s School, and a small one near the Voltas shop.  We decided to start with the bigger one.

It  has been a a nightmarish experience for commuters to get past this one as the road leading to it is a narrow road, with a T -junction right in front of School. To add to it, there is a blind turn on the right side with the pot hole sitting pretty right there!

A resident who came up to us to say thanks told us that he has complained to BBMP but nothing has been done about it. It was nice to see people stopping and thanking us for taking this up.

We used 100 Kgs of Shelmac ( ready made cold  mix from Shell)  to fill this pot hole !  This should give a rough idea about the size of this one! It cost the foundation three thousand  rupees ( 3,000/-) to fill this pothole . But we feel satisfied that it might save precious lives of someone like our daughter.

We chose to focus on just the one pothole, and used up all the Shelmac that we had procured. We will tackle the second pothole another day, after we procure more material.

We were joined by our friends and volunteers of the foundation, Mr Ajit Bedekar, Ms Arati Bedeker and Mr Muthukumar. It’s always nice to have friends to give a helping hand and they are a source of emotional support to us  during such activities.  Thank you Arati, Ajit and Kumar!

         

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

The work of The Arundhati Foundation is being noticed. We were fortunate to have some coverage in the recent past

11 Jan 2016 : In the Economic Times

14 Jan 2016 : In I Change My City

9 Feb 2016 : In The Better India

Thank you for spreading word about The Arundhati Foundation. And Many Thanks to The Friends of The Foundation whose support and well-wishes have helped us.

Together, we will succeed in bringing about the change.

6 Feb 2016

This session was organised at Shishumandir, Hella Nagar ( near Garden City College ). It was in 2 parts :

• For the younger children, we had the Disney Safety Smart Video emphasising the 4 cardinal rules of safety “Slow Down”, “Pay Attention”, “Use Protective Equipment”, and “Do Not Distract”. Thanks to the Underwriters Laboratory for making this video available to us.
• For the elder children who use 2 wheelers, we had a Drive Safely session covering our material on Defensive Driving

Many Thanks to Mr. Manoj Kabre and the Rotary Club who helped us organise this.  Thanks to Caroline who coordinated all the logistics.

some pics from the event :

4 Feb 2016

Thanks to Manjunatha K G – an old family friend, and an ex-colleague – now the Founder and CEO of Kenscio Digital Marketing Pvt Ltd.  He organised this session very effectively at his company premises.

The entire focus was on inculcating defensive driving habits. Thanks to the participants for making it a very interactive session, and also to those who have reached out to us to volunteer their support to The Arundhati Foundation.

Here are a few pics, and the pledge signed by the Kenscio employees.