Follow Your Instincts

Yesterday I went to city A (a metro) with my mom and kids in a hired vehicle, as my car needed some urgent repairs.
My H was too busy to join us, hence I naturally became the mission leader.

We went there to do some health check up for mom, and then to attend a prayer meeting, and finally visit a relative who is sick.
Once almost all the programs were over, I alerted the driver to be ready to take us back home. It was around 8pm, and it takes another 3 hrs to reach home.
But my driver did not come for the next 30 mins, citing lame reasons like traffic, starting problem etc... and finally at around 9pm he said the battery of the vehicle has a problem, and it needs to be charged immediately to start the vehicle.
I looked for mechanics from my known sources, yet couldn't find anyone.
Since we were roaming alone in the streets, I decided to go back to my relative's place till the vehicle is fixed. So, hired a tuk-tuk and went.

Everyone said, there will not be any mechanics around that time of the day. So, they asked us to wait till next morning to find a mechanic.
But the driver was in a hurry as he had some other commitments back home, so he went ahead and found a mechanic himself, and called us around 11.30 (while we were half asleep) to get ready for the return trip.
My instinct said NO. First of all, a mid night trip towards city B, crossing several highways, and rural and remote villages may not be safe. Secondly, travelling with 3 dependents (3 young kids, and 1 elderly woman) is a risk. Thirdly, me as a young mom with no male support, leading this mission at the odd hours with an unknown driver is not a brainy decision.
So, I asked him to stay put, and take us back home the next day.
He stressed that he wanted to go, so after a point I decided not to argue with him, so let him go.
I hired another vehicle the next morning to reach home, resulting extra cost.

My relatives did not appreciate me for this, saying I was too paranoid and thinking too negatively. So, they blamed me for the extra cost and stress that I had to take when staying at relative's place without any preparations (no changing cloths, no brush, no accesaries for that matter). It was indeed tough. But I felt the extra money and the stress that we took on that night was worth it. Our safety and our honor is more important than all this. So, I brushed it off all these criticism.

What made me write this experience here is the careless attitude of the people around us.
I just read the sad ending of the 7 year old little girl, who was molested and burnt by a sexual predator. Her parents left her alone and unattended at their house for shopping. How carelessness?
Similarly a 5 year old child was abducted from her house, raped and killed by an evil animal in my country just over an year ago. It has received a vast media coverage too.
In that case, the mother of that child left their main door unlocked (closed but not keyed) since she was too lazy to get up and open the door when her H comes from work during mid night.
The H was too lazy to get a duplicate key, so both made this stupid arrangement to leave the door unlocked till her comes (mid-night). This predator took this for his advantage.

In this age and time, there are so many people who take risk with theirs and their children's life.

Recently I have read somewhere about a girl, who went for some photography to an isolated building while it was already dark. She was alone there, and caught by some drug addicted animals. As a result, she was raped and killed.

The Delhi gang rape is yet to be out from my mind. The girl and the boy's carelessness to load in a charter bus, which was closed and very few were sitting in it.
Her decision to watch a movie with her BF was not wrong. Her decision to come out of her house at night was not wrong. But her decision to take a bus in a hurry without noticing the odds of the bus (closed, not the route bus, no other people etc) were very wrong, which resulted the crime.

One can argue about the safety and morality that comes along with this issue.
Women can march requesting equal rights, safety and security in the streets... and claim it is important to ensure safety of women in all parts of the world. There is no doubt.
But applying common sense, and respecting your instinct, specially in these days is a must before everything.

It is better to be safe than cry later....