An antidote for self-pity

I complained about driving on streets with dug-up trenches until I learnt about sinkholes

April 01, 2015 05:08 pm | Updated 08:36 pm IST

At the Corvette Museum in Kentucky, where a few cars plunged into a sinkhole.

At the Corvette Museum in Kentucky, where a few cars plunged into a sinkhole.

Meditating upon lives beset with bigger problems is a widely prescribed antidote for self-pity. It’s time for me to take this prescription.

I live in an extended section of Chennai, and my house is now swamped by streets dug up for development. Every day, a trench appears in a new street, forcing me to find a new route to drive out of the neighbourhood.

Though I don’t enjoy such surprises, I am not complaining. For, being aware that unsuspecting motorists have driven right into rapidly caving streets makes my situation immeasurably more palatable. In certain regions of the world, sinkholes where the earth caves in suddenly and mercilessly gobbles everything — houses, vehicles, people and pets — are a possibility waiting just under the surface.

When they happen, sinkholes take everything found in their range down with them. But the majority of accidents involving sinkholes, that have been either dramatic or heart-rending, have had to do with motorists and vehicles.

Often, vehicles and motorists are sucked into sinkholes only to be hauled out of them with minor dents and injuries. Sometimes, the damage leaves painful scars on the mind. Unsuspecting families have been buried in their cars.

Here are two examples from recent times. In a tragic sinkhole incident in Crimea last year, a car plunged in, taking six of its occupants, including two children, into the bowels of death.

In another incident last year, a few cars on display at the captivating Corvette Museum in Kentucky, United States, plunged into a sinkhole, some of them damaged beyond redemption. Viewed in the light of such uncertainties and tragedies, dug-up trenches don’t appear to pose so much of a challenge.

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