The Bedtime Series | Season 1, Ep 6: Lucky?
I have had some amazing road accidents in the past. And most of them (or maybe all of them) were on this rickety old scooter I used to drive. It was a 15 year old kinetic Honda, one of the first ever automatic scooters in India. So this scooter was bought by my dad in 1995 or so, and was used for a couple of years. It was since left to rot, till I found good use for it in 2007 to commute to and from my college (or at least till the metro/subway station).
Accident #1
I was driving happily at around 60km/h and climbing this flyover near this place called Moolchand, driving past a bus on my left and a van on the right when suddenly I heard a loud ‘boom’ and the whole damned scooter started shivering, then shaking violently and trying to either veer into the bus or bash into the van. Somehow I regained control of the mad devil and came to a standstill, in the middle of the road, got down and pushed it to the shoulder and found out that the rear tyre had just randomly decided to burst. So random!
Accident #2
Delhi is full of roundabouts, especially in Lutyens Delhi (The central part designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens during the rule of the British). One fine morning, on the last roundabout before Patel Chowk Metro Station, I zipped into the roundabout at my usual nippy pace. At the same time, a small white Maruti car decided to zip out of the roundabout right behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black plastic bumper very close to the back side of the poor old Kinetic Honda. A fleeting thought just crossed my mind about the impending impact, and lo & behold, I got pit manoeuvred by the stupid little car and went flying into the nearest footpath. Fortunately nothing was hurt except my ego because I immediately got up and had enough thoughtfulness to put up my middle finger at the driver as he rapidly sped away without even waiting to check if he’d successfully injured someone.
Accident #3
It was raining, I had just seen a pretty nice movie somewhere in East Delhi and was returning home, crossing the same old Moolchand Flyover (in the opposite direction this time). There was a long queue of vehicles, bumper to bumper, waiting to take the left turn to GK-1. I thought I’d go straight to Chirag Delhi and take a left from there towards GK-2, which was my favourite route and I had the entire right lane empty to zip past on. Suddenly one of the cars from the left lanes decided to jump onto the right lane without warning. I slammed on the brakes, knowing very well that the old little scooter’s old little tyres would never have enough traction to stop on the already wet road. Obviously, it skid. It skid, it slid, it fell, I fell and we both danced for a good 100 metres or so before coming to a halt. Again, the car raced away without even waving a goodbye. Sad.
Accident #4 (Well, almost)
Today, on the way back from a nice dinner, I was sitting behind, in an Uber. We were at a traffic light. There were about 30 seconds left on the red light. Two buses came to a halt right behind us, in a very weird 45 degree angle to each other (slighlty non-parallel). Out of nowhere, I heard a screeching sound, then a metal-clanging-against-metal sound, then a really weird crunching sound and then the Uber driver started pounding on his horn madly, willing the vehicles in front to move away. I looked at the rear view mirror — there was real fear in his eyes and he was looking behind, sweat now forming on his forehead. I looked out of the rear window and to my sheer amazement, saw a truck stuck between the two buses, inching towards our car but gradually coming to a halt because it had gotten wedged in between the two buses. Later we found out that the truck had lost its brakes and had been hurtling straight towards us, and would have certainly crushed us had the two buses not come and stood behind us in that funny little angle that made sure the truck stopped gradually, without transferring any of its momentum to any of the two buses, preventing any of the three beastly vehicles from making minced meat out of our little Uber. Phew.
Luck? Blessing. Thankful to God, the universe, my near & dear ones and the greater energies. :)
Stay safe, drive safe and don’t take any chances!