“Saavu giraki, veetla solittu vantheya?”

“Saavu giraki, veetla solittu vantheya?”

(Customer of death, have you informed home?) This is a famous statement usually from auto drivers of namma Chennai and is now part of the local language to show our feelings to an exasperating jay walker or an errant motorist.

It is also a joke that brings a few smiles to the lay observer be it on the TV or on t he road. But just analyze the statement for a moment, it can be pretty unnerving.

When we leave home if we say “Poren!” (Going), we will get admonished by the elders who will correct it to “Poitu Varen” (I will go & return). The former is inauspicious and our folks dearly want us to return home. Sadly the fact is everyday there are folks who step out & never return due to their carelessness outside, either on the railway tracks or on the road. Incidentally "Poitu Varen" is considered most inappropriate only in one situation...

A careless jaywalker or an errant motorist takes his life and plays around with it with the belief that accidents will happen to some one less fortunate. He also forgets for a brief moment the promise he made to his loved ones when he stepped out.

Death unless it happens to us or our close ones is just a statistic, one of many that is found every day in the news papers.Remember – there are no accidents.

Incidentally Good Bye is a corruption of a blessing "God by Ye" to keep travellers safe on dangerous journeys used in medeival England. Today it is just Bye. Pity. That is why I prefer See you soon. I really hope to.