Last week, my colleague Vinod was talking about an accident he had. He was comfortably cruising at a speed of about 40 kmph on a one way road near race course in Bangalore. He was passing through a bridge when he decided to overtake the bus in front. Little had he anticipated that any vehicle could come in the opposite direction. Pathetically yes, a government vehicle, more to be precise, the law keepers’ vehicle - a police van was coming in the wrong direction.

He moved to the right to overtake the bus and then saw with at most shock that a vehicle is coming in his way. There was nothing he could do at that late hour; he had a head-on collision with that vehicle. He fell flat on the ground, with his head narrowly missing the tire of the bus he was overtaking. The driver of the police cab came and apologized saying that there was traffic congestion below the bridge and that forced him to break the law.

He was absolutely shocked, obviously, and was extremely lucky to escape without any major injury. His bike was adversely affected with him needing to spend a couple of thousand rupees to get it back to shape.

***

This incident brought the memories of my first accident to life.

It was in 2004, the night before Onam (Kerala’s main festival). I had the monthly party from my project then. We were having the party at my then project manager Bala’s house. It was around 20 kilometers from my home.

The party went late into the night. By the time we parted, it was around 2 AM.

I was feeling sleepy the night was cold. So when saw that my colleagues are not really speeding their vehicles, I said a bye and rushed home.

In an exact sequence of events as explained earlier, I was just about to overtake a car and then was hit head on with a lorry coming in the opposite direction. I was half asleep then and in the cold night, I was sitting tight to get a little heat. It was a four lane road and had a separator in the middle of the road as well. But since the road on the other side was having a repair work, a lorry came in the other lane and I had no clue this could happen.

The car which was going in front of me suddenly moved to my left when it saw the lorry, and I was trapped right in front (Did I say I was overtaking the car? The story could have been in that way as well, I’m failing to recollect the exact sequence of events).

I desperately tried to avoid the hit; I moved to the left the best I could. That helped me to avoid a head on collision, but the last piece of protruding end of my bike, the rear-view mirror scratched the lorry in its bumper itself. And I lost balance. The bike began to waggle. I could manage to be on the vehicle for a little more time, had me falling at the moment of hit, either me or my bike would have landed straight under the tires of the lorry.

And then I fell. I hit the road head first with my back of the head hitting hard on the road. Luckily the bike didn’t fall over me. At that time of the night and when you are in shock with your head hitting tough on the road that too when you are half asleep, the absurdist of things happened. I thought it was a dream. Yes, and then I lay there for a little more time there hoping it be a dream. It was quite paining in the back of the head. After some time, I decided to pinch my own arms to see whether it’s paining. It was, and then there were no other options other than to believe that I had an accident and I’m lying in the middle of the road.

I recollect someone walking near me to see whether I’m ok. Normally if there is an accident, no body will come to help for the fear of getting trapped in a police case. And at that time of the day, the chances of the victim being drunk is at the maximum. (I stopped boozing exactly a year before from that day.)

I slowly got up, touched the back of my head. There was swelling and a bump as big as my palm had appeared there. So the chance of internal bleeding was high. I need to act fast. My house was around 10 kms from there and they had no bike with them. So I can’t ask them to come to me. Neither could I think of anything else to rush to a hospital fast. So I decided to ride back home.

It took me around half an hour to reach home. And on the way I called my room mate Hafeez and told him that in not in a good shape. That was probably the first and last time I talked over the phone while driving.

He was waiting on the way. When I saw him there was only one thing I said. “I’m hurt. Get me to a hospital fast”. I gave him my driving seat and then he took me to Manipal hospital.

There they did a series of tests including scanning and taking x-ray photographs. They asked me to stay for 24 hours in the hospital for observation. Luckily there wasn’t anything bad that turned up. So I was discharged by around evening the next day. The spent that Onam at Manipal hospital and had to take food from their canteen instead of Onam feast. That was quite disturbing.

Amazingly I recovered fast and the same day evening, I went for the party organized by my company. It was more like an annual day, but sadly that was the only time they organized it. Good that I didn’t plan to take rest, but to view the show.

The hospital bill came more than 5000. The amount is negligible compared to the amount I would have had to spend if the injuries were bad. Luckily this was the only accident I had driving my bike till date. No scars or physical marks of the accident remain but the memories still haunt. That indeed was a dreaded night which I don’t wish to remember for ever.