Preventing road accidents

There is something magical about New Year's Eve at Times Square in New York City. The energy levels of the crowd are so infectious that you tend to lose your inhibitions and dance the night away.

My wife Renu and I have spent a few New Year's Eves at Times Square. Our daughter, Nitya Gulati Saini, worked as a fellow in paediatric haematology-oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which, in a way, was an excuse for us to visit our favourite city again and again. Last year, however, she joined the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, and we missed our fabulous evenings in NYC. Nostalgia could perhaps make the past better than it actually was!

New Year's Eve is always a time when I get emotional and introspective. Sometimes, memories of my previous resolutions flash through my mind. One of my resolutions was to be a singer. Since my college days, I have been good at dramatics and poetry recitation, but was mostly out of tune while singing. Not one to give up, I started practising and even engaged a music teacher. I wouldn't miss practice even if I came back from work after midnight. But I was not destined to be a singer. I developed vocal nodules and had to give up singing. This prompted me to take my poetry recital more seriously, which I am still pursuing.

My resolution for 2019 is to work on a project on prevention of road accidents. Road accidents are the third largest cause of death among young people after HIV and heart attacks. One person dies every four minutes on Indian roads, and there are about 40 people injured at the same time. This leads to severe disability in many people and loss of earning members in many families, pushing them to despair.

I want to take up the project with multimodal approach, bringing various agencies together to tackle the causes of road accidents such as poorly trained drivers, rampant and blatant flouting of traffic rules, drink and drive, corruption in the enforcement of traffic rules and poor design and maintenance of roads. The project could potentially save many lives.

Among the things I look forward to in 2019, what tops the list is an enhanced industrial base for production of equipment and implants used in the health care industry so that health care can be made affordable. I would also like that health care, especially emergency care, be recognised as a fundamental right.

As far as my dreams for India are concerned, I would like to see our countrymen living in peace and harmony and get away from the politics of religion, caste, race and other factors that divide our society. I would like that our country moves towards better research and development in different fields, for that is the way forward.

Gulati is joint replacement and spine surgeon, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, Delhi.