Tags:
Journalism of Courage
My 40-year-old friend Prakash uses a hearing aid. Nothing wrong with that, considering he is hearing-impaired from birth and depends on a small machine tucked behind his ear to hear the noises of this world. Until very recently, he was quite grateful for the latest in medical technology that gave him this chance to overcome his disability. But now he hates his hearing aid. Reason? His habit of humming a song while driving combined with his hearing aid equipment, which looks just like a Bluetooth headset, is proving too costly for him.
In just the past week, four notices from the traffic police, with a penalty of Rs 1,500 rupees each, have dutifully arrived at his residence. His offence? 8216;Using mobile phone while driving8217;. He feels like banging his head on the wall over this lack of sensitivity on the part of the overzealous traffic cops. We try and tell him that the cops are hardly to be blamed, seeing that his hearing aid does actually look like a wireless headset. Another friend pitches in and advises him to stop singing while driving.
Prakash gave up arguing after a while, having understood that while the policeman seemed well-versed in the latest cell phone technology and Bluetooth headsets, he was obviously oblivious of the age-old technology of hearing aids. That was when Prakash made up his mind.
He has now decided to contest his traffic challans in court.
