Someone was reading my hand and I remember him telling me that you have a great life ahead of yourself. Your luck line was fragmented until now but from now on there is nothing stopping it. You would do very well in your life, career, health, love, except there is going to be a major accident in your late thirties. You will survive.
I was talking to my mom once, may be while watching a movie where a major accident takes place. I wondered, how cool would it be to be at the center of an accident. The car about to hit another one. The adrenaline rush one would feel. I felt such a rush when once in US we were driving on old solid snow and car lost control on a turn. The car swirled to crash gently in the footpath. Yeah I did feel the adrenaline rush like that of being in a roller coaster. But it was not the same. Be very scared of what you ask. You just might get it.
"I was sitting with my hands tight on the rails when he was driving me to the metro station last night."
"I was so scared when he drove past two vehicles from their middle"
"He drives just too fast. I have seen him"
I thought these guys did not understand it even though I was driving fast, I was driving safe. I pride myself at predicting drivers on Indian roads. I knew all the moves of the autos, cabs, civilized drivers of cars, uncivilized driver of cars (I still cannot predict ricks though!). Almost always I had a back up plan when I was doing heroics on the road. What if the parallel vehicles from the middle of which I would be going, converged towards each other? Is my speed enough to handle that eventuality and yes I could handle it and I have done a it a hundred times. The guy on the perpendicular road is coming too fast to the intersection. He cannot see on his perpendicular side when he is driving so fast. He would need to apply brakes when he reaches the intersection. What if he doesn't? Is my speed low enough that I can stop the vehicle at the intersection?
No theory can exist without exceptions, except this one. It sounds like "the only thing constant is change". This is so because life is random. You can predict only a part of the randomness. Every theory would fail at a use case not considered or ignored or not known. The above theory was bound to fail too. I knew, when was the question? Was the probability low enough for me to live my life without encountering it?
It feels like a dream. It's said that you have just ten seconds to remember a dream after you wake, beyond which it just vanishes. If I had dreamt about what I went through yesterday, I would have woken up shocked and soaked in sweat. I thought I would use my ten seconds to put down the nightmare I lived through to tell the tale.
Like any other day, I was driving fast to my office. I was on my favorite road, the one leading to Signature towers from the HUDA City Center Metro station. Favorite because all the speed breakers build on it are at the waning end of their lives and have big gaping holes in them to let the bike swiftly through. I quickly passed unharmed through the only bottleneck, as usual and I increased the speed so that I can coast through to the office for the rest of the run.
I had calculated that to reach Signature towers turn at enough speed, which I calculated to be 30, I would need to be at 50 on the last U-turn available. To reach that U-turn available at 50, I would need to be at 90 at the one before that. In case I was not able to touch 90 on the second last U-turn, I could go on up to 80 till about a third distance between the two U-turns and then release the throttle.
It was one of those days, when I was cruising at 80 until the first third. I had released the throttle. I was in the next lane of this car which was coming fast from my behind and overtook me and I thought, duh! what a crazy driver. It slowed down because the car just ahead of it was travelling slower. Very next second I thought, now this guy will switch to the left lane so that he could get ahead of the car blocking his speed ambitions. I also thought that this would no way harm me because at his speed he could cruise away from me even if he switched lanes. My bike would have touched 70 at this time.
The very next second he did exactly what I had thought. He took a sharp left. Right at that moment my calculations went awry, his speed came down and I was staring at my bike going into the car. I took a sharp left too but my bike touched the car. I lost balance.
This was the adrenaline rush I had thought I would live. This, I hope, was the accident I was to survive. What follows is only a guess to what would have happened because as an anti-climax, as I began to fall, my eyes were shut. Was it a temporary black out or just a reflex I know not. I heard my head bang thrice on the road and even in that state I thanked that I was wearing a helmet.
The bike swayed to the right where the car was touching it. In a bid to keep it stable, I shifted my weight towards left. The bike began to give way and started falling towards the right. My weight on the left pulled be off the falling bike. I landed on my left shoulder and started rolling. To stop myself from rolling, I used my right leg which got bruised as it tried to apply break. My right arm also tried to help my left leg. Thankfully, I kept rolling. I guess I rolled thrice since my head hit the road thrice. The bike too was sliding parallel to me since we had the speed in the same direction. I and my bike stopped at the same time with my left leg just a little inside. There was a small incision on it. We both came to a halt. I was conscious and kicking. I got up to see that my bike was battered. I was fine.
A lot of things worked for me. I did not fell with my bike to the right or I would have been on a running road. Right of the bike is hot because of the silencer. The whole of the weight of the bike was on the right. I couldn't have rolled and would have been dragged with my bike. I was wearing a jacket with leather arms. They took most of the brunt of the anger of the unforgiving road. Thank god winters are unusually long these days. That's the reason I was wearing that jacket. I was wearing a jeans which did all it could to keep my legs from the brutal charcoal. My helmet again was to my rescue. I hit my chin on the road and then a couple of times my head. I do not think I would be alive without my helmet, no matter what else other clothing would have saved. My palms, the most exposed part of my body, never touched the road.
What followed was a profuse gratitude towards God that all the above held true. A new perspective towards what's important in life. My dreams are important, my family is important and my thrill is probably the least important. My bike is important. I was shattered to see my bike in that state. I also realized now why almost all the RE owners, drive so slow. They probably would have learnt this the hard way too. They too love their bikes as much.
There are some events in life, which pose a question to you: "Why exactly am I alive?"
Everyone falls off the bike. Only a few can 'ride' again.
Pick your battles. You cannot win them all.
