September 2004. After serving the US based BPO for less than 2 months, I got into a employment and study collaboration program. It involved one of the pillars of booming India's backbone. The Information Technology industry had given a new recognition world over. We were THE IT guys. We could do 3 times better job at 3 times lesser cost. After seeing a dip in late 1990s, IT was back... leading the great Indian success story. And here I was, in an IT firm which was amongst the top 3 in India and amongst the most respected world over. And in collaboration was a company sponsored Master's degree, again from an university counted amongst top 3 in India. Seems a dream... so what's the catch...??? Well, being in top IT company, for us didn't mean a hefty pay cheques. We were given just about life sustainable "scholarships". But who's complaining...?? Work experience in top company, Master's degree from top university and a scholarship as well... life was never so good... I was living in a dream...
But getting mere scholarships, again meant that I could not afford a bike just as yet... but I can start planning for it. But my mom had some other plans. "Nothing doing... a considerable chunk of the salary (in fact the scholarship) will go into Reccuring Deposit in Post Office Saving Bank." And it did. Bike was so close yet so far... So, now I'll have to buy a bike on EMI. But I'll have to give some down payment for that as well, a vehicle is not 100% financed. Now my target was the downpayment amount. 10 months and I almost reached there... now I was thinking of when...?? should I get it on my birthday or new year...?? It was only a matter of time... and I'll be on my steel machine...!! But fate has it's own plans. As soon as I was able to save enough for the downpayment, I was transferred to Bangalore, the IT Capital of the country. All the savings were drained in new city... I had to start from the scratch. Money was needed to setup a house... bed, bed covers, pillows, utensils, TV, security deposit for rented house... in short, the 10 months saving took less than 10 days to vanish. The bike again took the back seat. Untill the day when one of my roommates did the unthinkable. He bought a second hand bike and showed me the way... "I can also buy a second hand bike, instead of waiting endlessly for a brand new one". That was it. Now saving enough for a second hand bike, though still difficult, was still achievable task. And with it started the quest. All classified were milked. And finally came the day, 4th July 2008, when she was mine... Bajaj Pulsar 150 cc. A dream nurtured for 8 years, finally came true. I HAVE A BIKE NOW....!!
Commuting was never the purpose of the bike. The beast was meant to roar... and the cramped city roads seldom provide enough opportunity to spread her wings. So highways it was. Not that I never use it in city, but the glory and pleasure comes when the city slowly shrinks in the rear view mirror. I try to leave the city traffic snarls behind once every month. Though may not make it everytime. Mysore, Hoggenakkal, Lepakshi, Shivasamudram, Nandi Hills... anything within 200km and I am ready for it. So... why was I skeptical for Bandipur over a long weekend...?? It was a signal, which none of us was able to gauge.
We left at about 3:30 pm, Friday. The plan was to reach Mysore by evening and leave for Bandipur early morning on Saturday. Bag packs, tanks full, air pressure checked, trip metre reset to zero... And voilla... here we leave. 2 Bajaj Pulsar bikes, 4 people, Bangalore-Mysore Highway and 3 days on a trot... things never looked so pleasing before. But remember... we were riding not just the bikes, but our lucks as well... we had willfully and whole heartedly ignored not one, not two but three clear signals... looks like we were destined for this, destined for the Close Encounter of First Kind...!!
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We had planned a halt after every 60 minutes or 60 km, whichever is earlier. After taking a relatively longer and more trffice prone route to leave the city, we covered only 28 km in first 60 minutes. And it was time for our first halt. A highway dhaba. We were not feeling hungry, so just some streching and a coke. The signboard on the dhaba read, Mysore 128 km. Not more than 3 hours, including halts, we decided. Me and my pillion, both were having a knapsack. It was getting a bit uncomfortable for both of us if I carried the bag on my back. So after the halt, I hung the bag on my chest, and pillion hung his, on his back... making the seating a lot more comfortable. How crucial this arrangement was going to be.....
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Roads were smooth, traffic managable, it was still not dark and bike was responding well to the throttle... we were cruising at 70-80 kmph. We had travelled some 12 km after the halt. I was leading the way and the other biker was following some 20 meters behind me. As it is a very normal sight on a highway, a 16 wheeled monster was reeling ahead us. Thankfully he was in the slow lane... else usually these monster wander in fast lanes... He must be at 50 kmph, we were 80 kmph. We were not exactly behind him, but say behind his right tail lights... I took a slight bent to its right to overtake... This was my 7th excursion on bike in last 9 months...come one...!! I know how to manoeuver on the highways. Slight right bent it was... we were safely overtaking the container truck. There was nothing in the rear view mirror...
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BANG...!! Headlamps of a dark grey Mahindra Scorpio, my helmet in the rear view mirror of Scorpio, a moment of pause, BANG.. again, tarmac 3 inches from my face, bike rolling on highway, whole world rotating around, or was it me who's rotating, other biker's glimpse in one rotation, a few cars zooming past in other, my bare hands trying to get hold of earth, my body refusing to stop the rotations... finally force of gravity and friction brings me to halt. No sounds, nothing is audible...some 40 odd seconds... I don't know what happenned.. or do I...??
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Few minutes later things started to make sense again... make sound again. The first thing I heard was the second biker, who was running 20 m behind me, heavily abusing the driver of Mahindra Scorpio. Boy...!! that was an accident. A SUV running at more than 120 kmph had hit us. My bike flew in the air and so did me and the pillion. And the knapsack arragement was criticle. Both me and pillion fell on the bags. Bags that contained clothins and towels, bags that doubled as our sheilds, bags that took all the jerk, all the impact of the fall, bag that saved us. Only a few scratches, just a little cut on the palm, a torn jacket, damaged bags, bent leg gaurds of the bike and we...!! God... we are saved. NOTHING happened. The hit was so loud people sitting 50 m came running at the spot. I was told that pillion stood up as soon as he came to halt after the rotation drama, but I took some time and crawled a few step, slowly stood up and came off road. The pillion's wound seemed very severe to me, but it wasn't. So was my. All three, me the pillion and the bike, were spared of any serious damage... if fact any damage at all, considering the intensity of the impact.
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Once back in to normal, impact analysis began. My wind cheater jacket was torn on left elbow, scratched on right wrist. No damage to jeans. I was wearing spectacles which were intact and amazingly the helmet was scratchless... Bag bore the burnt, both the bags. In physical damage... I had sratches on right forearm, a wound on left elbow, a cut on my right hand palm and little blood clot in index finger. The pillion had a wound on right elbow. NO fractures.. we both were easily able to stand up and walk. On 500 m was a small school of nursing. They did the dressing. The iodin tincher was hell... but not as bad as what had happened few min ago.
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Phew...!! 40 seconds is all it took to rewind the whole life of 26 years. Now I realise how short a life I've lived. There are so many people whom I am still to say "I care". There are so many dreams attached with me that I have to fulfill... and "... I've promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep". It was, touch wood, my first experience... my first close encounter. First time I saw both life and death so closely. First time I realise how precisous life is and how priceless it can be. First time I realise... LIFE IS SHORT...!!
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We dropped the plan to move further and returned home. On the way back we stopped at the first temple we found... thanked lord for his kind blessing and seek forgiveness for so royally ignoring his signals... The incident should not dent our spirits... so clicked some photos with all the bandages... and walked clean (well almost) from the Close Encounter of First Kind....
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The city is visible again... ready to accept us despite the disrespect and indifferne we show to her... like a mother.. waiting to embrace a injured son... We are already feeling safer, better and happier in her lap....
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