Science fiction : The accident

Science fiction : The accident

Have you watched an equestrian horse galloping gracefully, with highly dignified leaps over the hurdles? I am certain you must have, if not in reality but over the TV while browsing through the channels. But sometimes, the horse loses its balance and kicks the hurdle inadvertently, at that moment maybe the horse thinks, "I wish I could score a perfect 10 like Nadia!"

Equestrian Jumping : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0xj-IKfCbY

In a competition there are either failures or winners, there is nothing like accidents.

And this is where human life and human societies are different. Because there are accidents, and life cannot be treated as a never ending game or a competition. However, there is an important aspect that we often neglect when it comes to understanding accidents in human societies i.e. the damage they cause and what implications they can have. Which according to me can be summed up as follows:

1- There are accidents that cause physical damage

2- There are accidents that cause emotional and psychological damage

3- And there are accidents that cause social damage ( for the sake of maintaining the integrity of this blog post, I am not considering political, economical and other sides of the accidents )

Recently when I went out to meet someone in the market. I got down from the bus that I was in, and as I reached the pavement, I saw a couple caught in an intense altercation. And given below is the tempo and extract of their argumentative conversation:

"Husband: I could not help it. I tried to turn left and this person came speeding in from the opposite direction and hit me.

Wife: Yes I saw that! Now look at the damage. It is worth $ 1000 and this is a lot of money.

Husband: I understand that darling, but I couldn't help it. I will make sure I get the car repaired as soon as I return from the office today.

Wife: What about the time we will lose and the extra money we have to pay? Who will compensate for the time we are wasting on this activity?

Husband: I am sure they can fix it in a week at the garage. We will have to manage for a few days without the car.

Wife: You are always careless and reckless. That is it!"

I am a great fan of candid conversations, but candidness without sensitivity, is like a relationship between a man and a woman, where both have taken a vow never to touch each other or help each other.

And in this conversation, where the car is the main victim, because it suffered damage physically. But, the husband who was driving the car, was a partaker in this accident, because he was managing the car that could not think or take decisions independently. So, his wife gives him a piece of her mind.

In this conversation, the wife too suffers, due to her thoughts about managing her daily routine without the car. Although the driver ( husband ) is still there and safe. But her worry is arising more from her fear about reaching her office late, or using public transport and not from the damage sustained by the car. So she is dealing with a lot of fears, which shape her insensitive conversation with her husband.

Due to this, the husband becomes the primary, yet, an uninsured victim in this accident, where he can claim insurance against the damages suffered by his car, but for his emotional suffering due to the accident, there is no insurance policy. Because, its sole issuing authority, rested with his wife. And by acting insensitively she has denied him this emotional insurance, when he needed it the most.