MACHINES have improved human life immeasurably. Certainly, human life has become less hazardous and easy because of machines.  They are simple like a lever which uses little energy and has fast and tremendous results. A Greek philosopher has said that “Given a proper lever, he could raise earth single- handed”. The futurologist Alvin Toffler in his book Future Shock, states that the development of the last fifty years has more than equalled the development in the previous five thousand years. The twentieth and twenty first century has witnessed an unprecedented development of machinery which is being used by the people in Agriculture, Medicine, Industry, Engineering etc. for their comfort and easy going. 
 It is unfortunate that the Scientific Machinery which gives useful results and comforts to the people at all the places in the world, has its adverse effects and results in this part of the world particularly at SKIMS Soura which is required to give life to the dead and soothe to the depressed and oppressed lot of this society.
 The messy state of affairs at SKIMS made me and my family and four other people to pass through a nightmarish experience and virtually we have come back from the jaws of death by the Grace of Allah.  
 I consider it a moral responsibility to bring to the notice of the people of my nation the horrendous and unspeakable experience through which the eight people including me, my wife and two sisters and four other people underwent while boarding the lift at the premier medical institute Soura.  We had a narrow escape when we got trapped in a lift at SK Institute of Medical Sciences Soura here for around three hours and nobody could rescue us till the SSP Srinagar whom I managed to call from the grave of the lift after the SKIMS officials did not respond my and his lift operator’s dozens of calls. I and my family had gone to see our ailing brother at the medical institute on the 21st, of September, Tuesday, 2010. We reached to the institute at 6 p.m and to reach immediately to the fifth floor we boarded the lift along with the operator and four other people. As the operator started the lift, it had a big bang and we got stranded somewhere in between the caves of the walls of the lift. The operator informed us that we are trapped now and there is no possibility of coming out of the lift. We thought that within minutes the mechanics and the responsible Engineers would come and relieve us from the anxiety after making rescue operation. I asked the operator that he should inform the engineer and mechanic or other operators but he informed us that the responsible Assistant Engineer at the residential campus is unable to handle the fault of the lift and he invariably takes help from the mechanics and operators… I asked him to inform the mechanics but he said that he has not got their phone numbers and secondly there are only two and dismayingly one is resident of Ganderbal and the other one of Rainawari Srinagar.  He called his Engineer who came after one hour and then began shouting to the worried people outside the lift that he cannot do anything because his mechanics are not present there. He told people that they have to get the mechanic if he would be available at his residence. This statement of the Engineer made us to abandon the hope of our survival and the female prisoners in the lift began to weep and scream which discomfited the people outside who began to shout at the Engineer.
 After I and the operator failed to make any contact, I contacted the SSP Srinagar who responded and made a back call to me that he had asked his SHO Soura to nab the mechanics and save the lives. It was then on the insistence of the police that a vehicle was send to the Mechanic Zahoor Ahmad of Rainawari and it took two hours to him to reach the institute amidst curfew and it was then that we were rescued and certainly Allah listened to our atonement which we all eight people made inside the lift during the trap. 
 There are certain pertinent questions about the functioning of the Institute which the officers there evade and show a criminal negligence towards the life of the people.
 I want to itch the moral conscience of the SKIMS Babus that incase any heart patient or operated patient would have got caged in the lift what would have happened to them. And had I not informed the police official who would listen to us?  

By
Dr Farooq A Peer
(The ideas expressed are author’s own. He can be mailed at Farooq_peer@yahoomail.com and drfarooqpeer@gmail.com) 

Lastupdate on : Tue, 28 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST