When was the last time we helped an unknown person? Definitely, not only in terms of money… Last month… Last year… Don’t remember, right!!! When something is not working properly around us, we immediately start the blame game… But we do not move an inch of it to rectify… Yes, we may have excuses of not having time, money or anything else… But Kiran does not give excuses of any sort…
Kiran A is a full-time employee in the Shell Petrol bunk in Bull Temple Road, Bengaluru. He pursues B. Com in the APS Evening college. He hardly earns about INR 10,000 to take care of him and his studies. In spite of his less income and time, he gives no excuses for helping others. He was nominated as Rising Star of the year 2016 by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation Awards. Shell has also awarded him in the global Shell event held in Paris.
What did Kiran do?
Kiran is best known for the safety measures he has taken in order to prevent any accidents happening. It all started in 2015, when he had to view a lot of accidents happening near the bunk. People would drive into the median during nights unknowingly due to the absence of the reflecting signboard.
Speaking to The News Minute, Kiran said, “This spot used to see a lot of accidents. My colleagues and I would often go help people who got into an accident there, give them first aid, take their damaged vehicles to the nearby garage and even take people to nearby Shekhar hospital if they had suffered more serious injuries. We were doing all this, but I felt we should put a full stop to this wave of accidents.”
On account of some bandh, the petrol bunk was closed on Sep 30, 2015 and Kiran took this as an opportunity to do something for the median. With only INR 200 in his pocket, he went to the Chamrajpet Police Station. He showed the photgraphs of the accidents and explained that it all happened due to the absence of reflective signboard. Kiran received one from them and with his own money bought a sack of cement and installed the signboard himself. The spot became an zero-accident one and no vehicles ran on the median later.
Being an employee of the petrol bunk, Kiran and his colleagues were given training on the safety awareness. This training helped Kiran to save the lives of a father and son, when their car caught fire suddenly in the bunk. For this brave act, he received as Global Safety Award from Shell.
The next thing that caught the attention of Kiran was the streetlights in the road. Frequently the wires from the streetlights lay on the road, which caused sparks during rainy seasons. He found that the end caps in the wires were missing. He bought a insulation tape, fixed the end caps for at least six streetlights in the Bull Temple Road.
The list does not end here… Clearing the ads pasted on the warning signs, filling the potholes, conducting safety campaigns in the village, it continues…
What Kiran says about it?
In the interview, Kiran said, “I cannot do social service on a big scale, because I don’t have any background for such things. I saw something bad happening and did what I could to stop it. I won’t call it social service, because this is something that should come from every person. If this urge came up in every person, then there would be no need for anyone to do social service“.
As a next step, Kiran along with his other colleagues is planning to tackle the safety issues in their neighbouring areas in a systematic manner. Kiran said, “We will visit these areas and do a survey of all the safety problems there, and decide what we can solve. Then we will solve it ourselves. We plan to begin in the areas around Chamrajpet and eventually expand to cover all parts of Bengaluru south“.
