Thanks @[100000908314561:2048:Tushar] for writing this up. I was meaning to write myself.
Some points I want to highlight:
1. I ordered food from a @[100063894224598:2048:Bean Me Up] using @[100064411640740:2048:Zomato]. The delivery guy, Gaurav, met with an accident even before he reached the restaurant to pick up the order. Much later in the evening we learnt that this was a more than one inch gash on his head that required 5 stitches to heal.
[Always wear a helmet, no matter the distance or discomfort]
2. Why did a man bandage himself with a bandana and continue driving and working? Because he was terrified of losing his job. He is still under probation at Zomato. He said they only listen to customers and do not pay any attention to what their delivery guys say. So in order to keep his job, he went with a bleeding head to the restaurant, picked up the order, then drove to my place.
[As a society, we have failed to provide social security to people whose employment is seasonal or Covid impacted (he usually works in the hotel industry in Goa, but is unemployed right now). We have failed to generate employment in UP and Bihar where large swathes of our people live. And we tolerate companies like Zomato exploiting gig workers to the extent that they drive themselves to death.]
3. How did I discover the injury? While delivering the order, he apologised for being late, and begged me to not complain about him. I told him that I didn't even notice that he is late, and the restaurant also is quite a distance from my home. Then he started weeping. Why was he weeping? Because he did not expect any support from us customers, or from Zomato. He was feeling completely crushed by his circumstances, and even a little bit of humanity made him break down.
[The combination of our caste and class "superiority", and the general apathy that corporate jobs breed, has led to us urban Indians possibly being one of the worst specimens of humans anywhere in the world. We need to treat people who work for us, a lot, lot better.]
4. Then he talked about his injury. Even before I could attend to it, a minion from Zomato called me and started apologising for the late delivery. No point blasting this guy, so I just told him that the order has been delivered and the driver is severely injured, so I am attending to him. In spite of me informing Zomato, Gaurav kept getting notifications that he has not completed his ride/order for as long as he was with us.
[The app would not let him complete his ride. There was no signal near my house, and then when he got a signal he was outside the GPS range of my house. As an engineer I am appalled how other engineers cannot think through the human aspect of what they are coding when they make these apps.]
5. Being prepare for an emergency is critical. I did not have adequate first aid supplies at home. I did not have the stomach to deal with blood. I did not have the training to bandage an injury properly. Tushar bandaged the guy twice before he drove him to the hospital, so that when we reached the hospital, the bleeding had already stopped.
[I have helped more than a dozen accident victims by taking them to the hospital. But last night I realised that not once had I administered even basic first aid to the victims before handing them over to the hospital. I am glad my kids' school has been teaching them all kinds of first aid, even though it is most likely not mandated by the IGCSE board.]
6. On the way from my home to the District Hospital in Mapusa, the man begged not to be taken to the hospital because he could not afford it. I had to repeatedly assure him that the hospital was both free and high quality. When we reached the hospital, they did choose to charge ₹100 for a "paper" that is needed in order to treat a patient. If I remember correctly, that charge was merely ₹10 less than an year ago. Thankfully everything else was free, and they called him back today for free medicines also.
[Free healthcare for everyone is the cornerstone of a civilised society. Use your local government hospital, and insist on good services. I got my vaccine booster dose at the Badshahpur PHC instead of at Medanta, and I made noise about how unhygienic they were. If more of us use these services and demand quality, the services will improve. Don't have the attitude that "let the free services be for the poor".]
Anyway. Apologies for the long rant. I am ordering supplies from https://shop.stjohnsfirstaid.net/ . You should too. And I've uninstalled the Zomato and Swiggy apps. Rather than use these exploitative companies, I'll just call the restaurant and get things delivered. I've been told to do that many times before, but I'm lazy. But the price we pay for our laziness and convenience is too high.
#zwigato
Some points I want to highlight:
1. I ordered food from a @[100063894224598:2048:Bean Me Up] using @[100064411640740:2048:Zomato]. The delivery guy, Gaurav, met with an accident even before he reached the restaurant to pick up the order. Much later in the evening we learnt that this was a more than one inch gash on his head that required 5 stitches to heal.
[Always wear a helmet, no matter the distance or discomfort]
2. Why did a man bandage himself with a bandana and continue driving and working? Because he was terrified of losing his job. He is still under probation at Zomato. He said they only listen to customers and do not pay any attention to what their delivery guys say. So in order to keep his job, he went with a bleeding head to the restaurant, picked up the order, then drove to my place.
[As a society, we have failed to provide social security to people whose employment is seasonal or Covid impacted (he usually works in the hotel industry in Goa, but is unemployed right now). We have failed to generate employment in UP and Bihar where large swathes of our people live. And we tolerate companies like Zomato exploiting gig workers to the extent that they drive themselves to death.]
3. How did I discover the injury? While delivering the order, he apologised for being late, and begged me to not complain about him. I told him that I didn't even notice that he is late, and the restaurant also is quite a distance from my home. Then he started weeping. Why was he weeping? Because he did not expect any support from us customers, or from Zomato. He was feeling completely crushed by his circumstances, and even a little bit of humanity made him break down.
[The combination of our caste and class "superiority", and the general apathy that corporate jobs breed, has led to us urban Indians possibly being one of the worst specimens of humans anywhere in the world. We need to treat people who work for us, a lot, lot better.]
4. Then he talked about his injury. Even before I could attend to it, a minion from Zomato called me and started apologising for the late delivery. No point blasting this guy, so I just told him that the order has been delivered and the driver is severely injured, so I am attending to him. In spite of me informing Zomato, Gaurav kept getting notifications that he has not completed his ride/order for as long as he was with us.
[The app would not let him complete his ride. There was no signal near my house, and then when he got a signal he was outside the GPS range of my house. As an engineer I am appalled how other engineers cannot think through the human aspect of what they are coding when they make these apps.]
5. Being prepare for an emergency is critical. I did not have adequate first aid supplies at home. I did not have the stomach to deal with blood. I did not have the training to bandage an injury properly. Tushar bandaged the guy twice before he drove him to the hospital, so that when we reached the hospital, the bleeding had already stopped.
[I have helped more than a dozen accident victims by taking them to the hospital. But last night I realised that not once had I administered even basic first aid to the victims before handing them over to the hospital. I am glad my kids' school has been teaching them all kinds of first aid, even though it is most likely not mandated by the IGCSE board.]
6. On the way from my home to the District Hospital in Mapusa, the man begged not to be taken to the hospital because he could not afford it. I had to repeatedly assure him that the hospital was both free and high quality. When we reached the hospital, they did choose to charge ₹100 for a "paper" that is needed in order to treat a patient. If I remember correctly, that charge was merely ₹10 less than an year ago. Thankfully everything else was free, and they called him back today for free medicines also.
[Free healthcare for everyone is the cornerstone of a civilised society. Use your local government hospital, and insist on good services. I got my vaccine booster dose at the Badshahpur PHC instead of at Medanta, and I made noise about how unhygienic they were. If more of us use these services and demand quality, the services will improve. Don't have the attitude that "let the free services be for the poor".]
Anyway. Apologies for the long rant. I am ordering supplies from https://shop.stjohnsfirstaid.net/ . You should too. And I've uninstalled the Zomato and Swiggy apps. Rather than use these exploitative companies, I'll just call the restaurant and get things delivered. I've been told to do that many times before, but I'm lazy. But the price we pay for our laziness and convenience is too high.
#zwigato