DRUNKEN DRIVING

I was just standing and surveying the hustle and bustle at an intersection while my wife was purchasing vegetables from a kerbside vendor. The early darkness of the chilly winter evening had already set in prompting liquor lovers to down a drink or two. Compulsions of habit don’t leave one easily. If one is tipsy and at the wheel it is an offence. If one is inebriated and misbehaves it is a public nuisance. In any case there is no safety for women on the stroll.

I write all this because I was also observing the brisk business going on in the liquor shops that passed my way. If one gulps down to his heart’s content and stays at home it attracts no legal penalty. I cannot say about the wife penalty.

By the side of the road many two wheelers and motor cars remained parked with the drivers standing here and there. I noticed a policeman at a distance with an alcohol breath analyser, suddenly stepping from the sides and stopping passing vehicles randomly to test the driver’s breath for any alcohol consumption.

Some seemed to have tested negative and some were not. The drunk were asked to get off from their vehicles and were taken away. I could not see where, there were other policemen in plain clothes.

All this went on for some time. I too moved away with my wife back home on our daily walk. To my consternation I noticed a policeman and one of the victims coming out from a nearby bar in a bye-lane some distance further.

Maybe by that time the policeman finished his duty for the day and penalised the offender in his own way.

Some punishment for drunken driving. Cheers !

ESKAYEN