Raju came to visit his relative at the Central Prison this morning. He was not permitted to carry his helmet. He looked around in desperation, only to realise that a hawker in the vicinity offered to help such motorists by charging Rs 10 for safe-keeping it.

Though Raju and a couple of others (Central Prison visitors) were apprehensive, reluctant to leave the helmet with the street vendor, they came to terms as they could do nothing else about it.

And the hawker, who otherwise used to wait for hours in sun and rain to make some money every day, July 1 seemed to bring some cheer, as within the first three hours, he made over Rs100 from this new line of business.

He is now preparing to issue tokens for safe-keeping of the helmet.

Meanwhile, motorists, who had by and large adhered to the rule say that they wore the headgear out of fear than safety to life. “Wearing the helmet alone is not going to save our life; we will probably escape a head injury, but what about our limbs? The road condition is pathetic; there are potholes everywhere,” said an elderly man at a traffic signal.

And even as we get people's views on making the headgear compulsory for motorists, we got to understand that one youngster lost his life when he was knock down by a water tanker. The motorist incidentally was wearing a helmet

With vendors quoting unreasonable rates for the ISI helmet and helmet locks “out of stock” at most places in the city, two-wheeler riders say that it is an additional baggage they have to carry wherever they go.

And those motorists, who until last night gave lift to a relative, friend or even a stranger, now prefer to say “no” if the seeker did not have a helmet.

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