CALLOUS

There was something unusual about the way the motorbike sounded. Before I turned back to look, I knew it has to be one of the young boys, the VR kids racing. But when I turned around, I was shocked to see that the bike was chasing us, as though we were its pursuit. It was suddenly like those moments I've seen in movies where everything is happening so quicky and you're being stalked, pursued and bombed.
The bike sounded like it was angry, croaking madly, with its lights blinking and it wasn't even going straight.

All I could do was call out Baa. He sped the bike a little. But before we knew, the bike had rammed into us. We stopped. Shocked from the jerk. I got off the bike and ran back some ten metres, where the man had crashed. The engine was still growling. It was a blue Hero Honda Splendour. The man was groaning. He had dust on his head and had started to bleed. I did not dare touch him. The street looked deserted. Bansbari is usually deserted. My father parked the bike and came over and tried to pick the man. He was badly hurt. I was terrified. My legs still hurt from the shock of the crash.

The man lying there reminded me of the night Naren died last year. Nothing had happened to Naren's body. But he wasn't among us anymore.

Baa told me to go get help. A man stopped a bike nearby. I started running toward Golphutar chowk, because I knew a traffic checking was going on. As I passed the Neuro Hospital, I saw about twenty people standing there and looking at the man who had just fallen. I yelled at them, someone get a cab. There were cabs lined there. I said, please get the police. One of them looked at me and said, I'll drive you in my cab to get the traffic. Lewd.

I started running. I wanted to get help fast. Tried stopping the bikes and cars that went past me, but no one would stop. I yelled at a biker, "Please stop! There's been an accident". He did. Dropped me off where a group of metropolitan police and traffic were standing. We got them to take the man to the hospital. He was heavily drunk. It was the first wedding day of the season, he must have been to one.

My father decided I should go back home to my parents instead of where I was going. He said it was ominous. I thought of Aki, who had tried to stop me when I was leaving. She had not only whined and scraped my jeans with her paws, but actually got herself caught up in the stap of my bag and put her paws around my arms. Her way of telling me not to leave.

But now, I think of the crowd staring at the man without picking him up, the cars and bikes going past without stopping when I waved, and wonder what's made us so callous. We will now leave people to die on the streets if there is an accident. It makes me mad to think of how selfish we've all become. WHAT'S WRONG WITH US?