An Indian bus journey is always interesting; usually long, usually crammed, usually going to the wrong places, usually breaking down, but this you can deal with because you're on 'Indian time'. This journey was different though. When people ask me about India I always say "it's a country that will bring out every emotion in you, you can go from loving it, to hating it and back to loving it again in a matter of minutes". This journey however nearly had me jumping on the next plane home. After waiting 2 hours for the bus to take us to this remote village where we could access a national park, we thought it would just be the usual antics. And it was most of the way, there was even a goat on the bus with us at one point. But then it happened. Looking straight forward I saw this young girl in a yellow dress running into the road and the car in front of us drive straight into her. Her mothers scream pierced through my heart, we heard her pain. To see this young girl be picked up off the road by her crying mother, floppy and covered in blood was by far the worst thing i've ever experienced. I know it can happen anywhere in the world but seeing it firsthand is heart breaking. Things then got worse, the driver who had hit her didn't stop. He sped off in his car with his wife in the passenger seat and his children in the back. Our bus started chasing him, leaving this family behind the deal with their indescribable sorrow. Luckily, the police were notified and caught the driver in the next village. Revoltingly, the driver was let off as he had the money to pay his way out of the crime and give the little girls family some money to keep them quiet. Can money pay for someones life? How sad that the poorness of this family chose to accept the money than see this man prosecuted. Questions went around and around in my head that day, and still do now. The hardest thing is knowing this isn't a one off, it's something that is always happening in that part of the world. What can we do to stop it is my question?
C Craig
