It was Wednesday. I had to wake up in the morning. I had so many works. It was busy day, I had it all planned the previous night. Rain was drizzling on this fine morning of a summer after pouring enough in the previous night and the day before that. The cool atmosphere made me want sleep more, but I had to wake to catch up with my works. I managed to roll out of bed and got ready for the day. The drizzling rain was stopping me from stepping out of home. I was thinking, ‘how am I going to make through this rain!’. Something happened before I could even complete the question in my mind. I was already on my two wheeler, helping it come out of the shed. When I pulled the handle backward, I pressed the ignition switch. The engine was refusing to start because of the cold.
I knew that I would not need to use the kicker. The self ignition will somehow work as it did on the previous days. The engine roared. The cold engine fumed some smoke. I noticed the head light beaming on the nearby wall. I could also see the raindrops falling down through the light. I switched off the head light thinking, ‘I saved somehow, the effort of a stranger who would sign me to turn off my headlight like most of the days’. I was scolding myself for the bad habit of not caring about my headlight during day. Now, I was out on the street and was going on towards our Tahsildar’s office, for applying for some land related documents that were mandated by a bank manager, who was trying very hard to reject my loan application.
I knew people who had availed loans for lakhs without any security, that too in recording breaking 3 business hours. Wonderful thing was that the borrower was not even an account holder in that bank. During the drive, I was wondering about the banking personnel who asked me for the death certificate of a person who died almost before India could make her independence. In between, the rain got heavy. I don’t have the habit of searching for shelters to escape rain during drive.I tell my friends that I like to drive in rain. But, some days I feel, ‘why am I going like a madman in this rain? Should I stop somewhere!’. Before I could convince myself to stop, my mind would remember the days I have told my friends about my rain drive. So my thoughts of stopping got washed away in the rain. I would keep on going.
But, today was not a day to thinking about rain shelters. I was enjoying the rain. Within 20 minutes, I was at town, where the government office is located. I saw a busy road only after reaching this town. so far, my travel was almost lonely, with one or two vehicles passing me. This lonely road had made me untrained enough to wait to cross the busy market road. I waited patiently with my indicator on. I was seeing both the sides of the road at-least for a couple of long minutes. When the road was almost empty on either sides as long as I could see, I re-ignited the engine which turned off because of rain and crossed the road. I entered the government office. It was busy and alive even on this rainy day, that too in the morning itself. I thought, this rush may be due to the previous and forthcoming election related holidays.
I parked my bike under a tree, where a “No Parking” board was painted, being the only place where one was able to park their two wheeler without much disturbance to the public. I had to ignore the cautionary board like my fellow visitors. Now I was heading to a Parking shed that was originally meant for two wheeler parking and was currently occupied by “form writing helpers”. These “form writing helpers” are peoples who have strong ties with the officers inside and are power intermediaries. One has to approach these people for anything to be happen, like getting certificates, land related documents etc. Approaching the government officers directly with our self filled forms will not be welcomed, the officers will be offended and would reply with repeated rejections citing procedural errors.
Afraid of such offends and procedural error citations, I had no ideas of visiting the govt officers directly. I went to a helper and asked him for help in getting so and so documents for loan, like an ignorant and uneducated person. After hearing what I had to say, he started to question me in a joking manner. ‘who asked you such documents, we can not get them’ and so. I said nothing and was looking at him blankly. I knew that he will do it somehow. After some jokes and laughs, he told me to buy some forms from the nearby photocopy shop. He asked me for details and filled the form.
Normally, I don’t think of myself as an Engineering graduate, who does not even know even how to fill up a Banking challan. I have availed for driving license, PAN, TAN, Passport directly without any intermediates. I should admit, that these are not basically complex, but have been made complex by the pre-colonial custom+broker+officer tie-up. It is hard for any one to get these things done directly without intermediary help. But in the course of time, I understood, even If someone is capable of receiving things directly, he is actually wasting more time, energy and money when doing things directly. That is why we move things through a broker or as we call them, ‘A form writing helper’.
I paid the necessary money, including his writing charges. After securing his assurance that I will get the certificates on next Monday, I was coming back to the “no parking” area, where I parked my bike. This area was now flooded with more two wheelers. I found it very difficult to take my bike out of the messy parking.
Once I came out of the building compound, I waited for the road to get empty again, so that I can cross it safely. This time I had to wait for more than 4 minutes, until my savior, an auto-rickshaw that came out of the campus crossing the road without even checking the traffic. The auto-rickshaw was followed by some pedestrians and even some two-wheeler that were waiting to cross the road. I tailed a two wheeler and crossed the road. Now I was returning back to my kingdom of traffic-less lonely road slowly. I remembered that I was going on the wrong direction. ‘I have to go to my college to get my observation report signed’, meant for the exam, day after tomorrow.
I took no time to stop. I checked both sides of the road and came back to join the busy main road, to reach my college. The rain had almost stopped, but the cool breeze was still there. When I stepped into my college class room, I remembered, for a record breaking third time, I did have my observation report with me. I planned to go back home for taking my observation report and come back after having my lunch. I reached home, took my observation report and had a quick self served lunch.
Again, I was igniting the engine to reach my college. I was thinking random thoughts all the way. I entered an almost empty, well maintained half lane riverside road. There were tall bushes and shrubs on both the sides. Everyone loves to have a fast ride in this road, except me. Because I loved the surroundings, I drive slowly enjoying the greenery.
I was thinking about my plans after getting observation signed by the faculty. An yellow scooter with the usual fast pace meant for that road was coming in the opposite direction. Before my brain could process the distance between me and that vehicle, my inner-conscious was telling me ” Okay, its going to be a entangled hit”. I still remember, the voice sounded very cool. Before I could think of anything further, my hand, without any further instruction from my thinking brain, impulsively made a slight left turn. There was a pause.
Still there was a pause.
Until I realized, the hit had happen already. Yes, It did and that too an entangled hit, obviously. My vehicle stopped and fell down along with me onto the river bank. I narrowly escaped falling into the river by a few centimeters. The pause continued until I got out of my fallen bike and managed to sit in the near by road. I had no pain. I had no thoughts. My mind was clearly blank. In a few seconds I turned to the two boys who rolled over quickly to get up. They were pulling their vehicles out of a shrub. When this was happening, their vehicle roared and made a climb onto the nearby shrub. The boys who were quick to get their bike back on road still did not come out of the shock, neither did I.
They narrowly escaped from the roaring, climbing scooter falling over them for the second time and made it stand up. They approached me for helping. By this time, there was a passerby who stopped near us to provide support. He helped to get my bike to back on road from the channel side. He inquired about my wellness and advised me to take a TT (tetanus toxoid) injection immediately. He also advised those boys.
I noticed a plastic piece, a long triangular shaped, metallic painted material that was alien to me bike, being struck in side the brake pedal. It has stopped the bike running into the river along with me. I managed to pull the plastic piece out and handed over it to the boys to whom it belonged to.
I requested the passerby to reverse my bike to the direction where I am coming from. He asked me and the boys about our actual direction of travel and collision. I was quick to clarify the direction I came from, but now I wanted to go back home. He helped to reverse the bike moving it out of a small pothole.
After that, I tried to sit on my bike. I felt a pain on my feet, a deep cutting pain. I did not have the usual curiosity to check the status of my wound. I understood that I was in some short of shock. But, I had no other choice, but to press the ignition switch. At this juncture, I thank my bike’s never ever failing self starting system.Without it, I would not have been able to start the bike with the wounded right foot. At least, it saved me from asking the stranger to help getting my bike started.
After the start, the pain increased. I realized that the brake was damaged when I removed the struck plastic piece. Even though if it is working, I was not able to apply the brake as my leg was hurting. I could not rest my right foot over the pedal because of the pain. Another reason was that the pedal was twisted and not usable.
I could notice the scooter having suffered serious damages, more than my bike. I had sustained more injuries than those boys, who show no immediate symptoms of injury. I drove the bike slowly. The pain increased. I was losing my confidence of being awake due to injury and pain. I reached home somehow, was taken to a hospital, treated and am recovering well with no serious injuries.
Important point is, I got my observation report signed and even finished my exams on the consecutive days.
After two days, When I recall the situation, I can see dark and bright sides of this chaos.
The dark side is the “Entangled hit”. It means, I had no chance of escaping the accident. The bright side is the “piece of a plastic sheet” that struck accidentally between my brake shoe and pedal in the collision. It stopped my vehicle from falling into the river,
I understand that an entangled situation may not be diffused by human actions, but incidentally, accidentally , naturally , randomly or otherwise collectively “by the act of God”.
Haniel's Blog 