I take the baton from P3. Her longest moment has inspired me to write about my own. The term ‘Longest moment’ here means road accidents. I have been riding bicycle since I was 9. I learnt to ride a scooter, when I was 13. When I turned 15, Papa got me a Hero Shakti (3 gear moped). By the time I turned 20, I bought a TVS Victor. So I had been riding 2 wheelers for 14 years, before I started working.
These 14 years on bikes were the most uneventful years for me on road. Never did I face a single accident. I was proud of that fact and considered myself as a very skillful rider. Even I used to ridicule DM, who had faced a major road accident because a dog came in his way. He used to tell me, ‘beta rukja. Har kutte ka din aata hai. Tere kismet mein bhi koi kutta likha hoga’. Little did I know that actually har kutte ka din aata hi hai. I used to drive my bike like John in Dhoom (my friends can testify that). Till 24th April, 2006 this was the norm. On that day I faced my first accident in my village, where I had gone to attend a marriage. It was a freakish accident on a village road, in very bad condition, which I chose to ignore. I still used to think that I am invincible.
Then I came to Hyderabad. For those who have not seen Hyderabad, I must say that the IT region and Hilly region (Banjara, Jubilee) have great roads. Anybody will fancy driving a bike on these roads. After a single look at the road and the overcrowded public transport system, I decided to buy my own bike. Within 10 days, I bought my bike, a 180 CC Bajaj Avenger. It had a very unique feature, not available in any of my previous bikes. It had a front disk brake and normal rear brake. While the disk brake ensured much better braking, the danger of skidding was always there, because of the mismatch of braking system in both the wheels. This proved to be my doom.
July 29th 2006 was a Saturday. I had some urgent work in the office and hence had to go. It was drizzling slightly in the morning. I vrrroomed my Avenger and started from home. On my way to the office, there comes a part where a huge 12 storied building stands today. During those days, it was getting constructed. So there was a mixture of sand, cement and small chips on the road. The rain had converted that into mud. As per my habit, I was going at some 50 60 KMPH on that rain soaked road. By the time I reached the construction area, I had avoided many path holes & natural mud holes. With each maneuver, my confidence was increasing manifolds. And then the incident happened. 2 black dogs were quarreling over a biscuit under the road side stall. As soon as they saw me, they decided my time has come. They left the biscuit and ran on to the road. I was at 55 KMPH to be precise and by my manual calculation; I think I got around 2.1 seconds to react to this.
And I reacted. My brain asked my leg muscles to press the rear brake pedal, which they did effectively. At the same time, the poor brain (which should not be allowed to do parallel processing again) instructed my right hand to press the front brake and it obeyed too. The combination of mud, front disk brake and rear normal brake was something which the bike was not designed to handle. So obeying its own flow chart, with all the three condition satisfied, it completed the resultant task. i.e. it slipped (taking me along with it). One moment I was driving my Avenger, feeling like GOD. The next moment I was being dragged on the muddy road by a 1 ton bike. The pebbles didn’t like the design of my shirt and pant. So they were torn at several points, by the time the bike came to a halt. While I was being dragged, I noticed that the road divider is just 2 feet away from my head. It was my good fortune that the bike dragged me in a parallel line to the divider, so my head never had the opportunity to touch it. I got scratches all over my body, which eventually took 2 weeks to heal. The biggest problem was the huge scratch on my left palm (which had to remain bandaged for 10 days), because of which I had to use paper after No 2 for several days (not so easy for us, Indians).
Some nice fellas came running to my help and dragged me from under the bike engine, which was still running. I then had to drag the bike to a shelter. When checked the bike, I found that the bike had no severe accident signs, with just a scratch on the leg guard. So it had chosen to save itself and get the driver killed instead. Future Avenger buyers, please think twice before buying one. I can never forget the moment when I was being dragged on the road by the bike, with a concrete divider just 2 feet away from my head, waiting to kill me. Due to severity of damages and mortal danger, this qualifies as my longest moment.
Over to the next person in line.
These 14 years on bikes were the most uneventful years for me on road. Never did I face a single accident. I was proud of that fact and considered myself as a very skillful rider. Even I used to ridicule DM, who had faced a major road accident because a dog came in his way. He used to tell me, ‘beta rukja. Har kutte ka din aata hai. Tere kismet mein bhi koi kutta likha hoga’. Little did I know that actually har kutte ka din aata hi hai. I used to drive my bike like John in Dhoom (my friends can testify that). Till 24th April, 2006 this was the norm. On that day I faced my first accident in my village, where I had gone to attend a marriage. It was a freakish accident on a village road, in very bad condition, which I chose to ignore. I still used to think that I am invincible.
Then I came to Hyderabad. For those who have not seen Hyderabad, I must say that the IT region and Hilly region (Banjara, Jubilee) have great roads. Anybody will fancy driving a bike on these roads. After a single look at the road and the overcrowded public transport system, I decided to buy my own bike. Within 10 days, I bought my bike, a 180 CC Bajaj Avenger. It had a very unique feature, not available in any of my previous bikes. It had a front disk brake and normal rear brake. While the disk brake ensured much better braking, the danger of skidding was always there, because of the mismatch of braking system in both the wheels. This proved to be my doom.
July 29th 2006 was a Saturday. I had some urgent work in the office and hence had to go. It was drizzling slightly in the morning. I vrrroomed my Avenger and started from home. On my way to the office, there comes a part where a huge 12 storied building stands today. During those days, it was getting constructed. So there was a mixture of sand, cement and small chips on the road. The rain had converted that into mud. As per my habit, I was going at some 50 60 KMPH on that rain soaked road. By the time I reached the construction area, I had avoided many path holes & natural mud holes. With each maneuver, my confidence was increasing manifolds. And then the incident happened. 2 black dogs were quarreling over a biscuit under the road side stall. As soon as they saw me, they decided my time has come. They left the biscuit and ran on to the road. I was at 55 KMPH to be precise and by my manual calculation; I think I got around 2.1 seconds to react to this.
And I reacted. My brain asked my leg muscles to press the rear brake pedal, which they did effectively. At the same time, the poor brain (which should not be allowed to do parallel processing again) instructed my right hand to press the front brake and it obeyed too. The combination of mud, front disk brake and rear normal brake was something which the bike was not designed to handle. So obeying its own flow chart, with all the three condition satisfied, it completed the resultant task. i.e. it slipped (taking me along with it). One moment I was driving my Avenger, feeling like GOD. The next moment I was being dragged on the muddy road by a 1 ton bike. The pebbles didn’t like the design of my shirt and pant. So they were torn at several points, by the time the bike came to a halt. While I was being dragged, I noticed that the road divider is just 2 feet away from my head. It was my good fortune that the bike dragged me in a parallel line to the divider, so my head never had the opportunity to touch it. I got scratches all over my body, which eventually took 2 weeks to heal. The biggest problem was the huge scratch on my left palm (which had to remain bandaged for 10 days), because of which I had to use paper after No 2 for several days (not so easy for us, Indians).
Some nice fellas came running to my help and dragged me from under the bike engine, which was still running. I then had to drag the bike to a shelter. When checked the bike, I found that the bike had no severe accident signs, with just a scratch on the leg guard. So it had chosen to save itself and get the driver killed instead. Future Avenger buyers, please think twice before buying one. I can never forget the moment when I was being dragged on the road by the bike, with a concrete divider just 2 feet away from my head, waiting to kill me. Due to severity of damages and mortal danger, this qualifies as my longest moment.
Over to the next person in line.
PS – There was another accident on the same bike, just few months after this accident. This time M sr. was with me. I will share that experience sometime in future.
2 comments:
Your longest moment need not pertain to road accidents only. But this must have felt like an eternity.
PS- you had a third (minor) accident on that bike. Remember??
actually i do...and it was because of you :P
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