ROAD BLOCK

Yesterday i got a telephone call from the emergency department of our hospital, to attend to a critically ill patient.I dressed up as quickly i could and took out the car.After driving a kilometer i noticed, hundreds of people on road with burning tyres and large stones in the middle of the road.The police asked me to go back.When i told him 'am a doctor has to go to hospital'
"you can take another route" was the cool answer.
The other alternative road was non existent.I had to return back.I rang up to my colleague to attend the case.(This road block was due to an accident some 15 kilometers away.Police always arrives but some two to three hours too late.)
This is a common occurrence in Odissa,India.(the name has recently been changed from Orissa,)Starting from the death of a hen to a human being, people close the national highway for hours.The common head line news in every day Odiya news paper is full of road traffic or railway accidents. "Such and such place father&son, father&daughter run over by speeding bus or truck or car, highway blocked for 3 hours."
The road sense, driving norms, traffic rules, faulty road constructions,bulls,cows and dogs on the road,humps and bumps,poor vehicular maintainance, non existent traffic rules,poor lighting arrangements of roads and vehicles, non functioning traffic lights are a common sight in this capital city of ODISSA called Bhubaneswar.More number of young people die due to road traffic accidents in a year, than H1N1 and AIDS patients put together.