LET HIM PROSPER, AND MAY HIS TRIBE INCREASE

All vehicular accidents would be unified by a central commonality – it happened in the blink of an eye. It was the same with me. This was like any other Monday of this summer; rush hour traffic, clear skies, warm breeze, thoughts of the impending tasks at the office; but it wasn’t entirely the same. I remember thinking about what would happen if my company was to buy another company that I recently came to know about, why it made sense, how it was beneficial to both the parties involved. “We localize all products for the Asia region anyway, we just need to consider this as an extrapolation of the same ideology,” I was convincing my bosses in my mind. It seemed to be a solid proposal, but maybe nobody ever finds problems with their own ideas, for the very reason that it is their idea. “Look at the benefits, we get our own…” I never completed that sentence, even though it was happening inside my mind. It was rudely interrupted by what seemed to be an earthquake or an explosion, or something entirely different. I caught a glimpse of a cream-beige wall of metal right next to me, almost touching me. I saw the world spin around me. I felt the sky go below me and come back up again. I was on the ground. And most importantly, it happened in blink of an eye. My bike was a few feet ahead of me. When I could stand a couple of seconds later, I was still trying to make sense of what had happened. I remember wondering why all these vehicles were facing the wrong way. A middle-aged person held my hand and helped me regain my balance. He was simultaneously talking to me and trying to goad other passers-by to try and stop the goods carrier that hit me, and afterwards hit another bike while trying to get back onto his lane. It was around this moment that I was able to realize that I was involved in an accident. I’ve been in accidents a couple of times before. One time, it was evident to me a tenth of second before it actually happened that I am going to be seriously injured. The other time, it was entirely the opposite – I have absolutely no recollection of it, even to this day. This one however, was again different. Even in that state of shock and delirium I was quite aware that the offending vehicle had suddenly swerved onto my lane either without seeing me or by misjudging the situation, thereby overestimating his ability to overtake the vehicle in front of him before I would reach him. Whichever it was, the one thing that was clear to me at that point was that he hit me and he hit another bike and he went away without stopping. I mentioned that I stood up facing the traffic. There was a Toyota Innova about three feet away from me, which just screeched to a stop. It was a Toyota. It stopped. The severity of this realization did not dawn upon me immediately. But that is not surprising, I read somewhere that the brain functions vastly differently when under stress and/or shock. The middle-aged man who helped me stand was the passenger of that Toyota. He said that he was on the way to the airport and offered to drop me at the nearest hospital en-route. I assured him that I was not that badly hurt and I would reach there on my own. He persisted but so did I. Eventually he relented. This being Bangalore, traffic was backing up for about a 100 meters in these few seconds. Another Good Samaritan who was trying to clear the traffic by moving my bike called out to me and asked me how my bike comes into the neutral gear. It turned out that his bike was a 100-125 cc one and therefore he was struggling to come to terms with the weight of my 350 cc. It was after all my bike, so I asked him to hold my helmet and the broken mirror and moved the bike myself to the side of the road. He left eventually, after enquiring to my condition, and the traffic improved as well. After a few minutes at the side of the road, when my heartbeat returned to its normal rhythm, I was able to think with some comparative clarity. I tried to recollect the entire episode and to evaluate my options ahead. After calling for help and sharing my exact location, I had quite some time to think about all of this until the aforementioned help arrived. The first prominent image that I could vividly recall was the Toyota in front of me. It stopped. What if it hadn’t or couldn’t? I was facing the traffic. It flowed like water around a rock – a phrase I borrow from World War Z – avoiding me fully. What if it hadn’t? The thoughts persisted. I tried to think of something else. I could only think of how I ended up facing the traffic. Looking at the skid marks on the road it was easy to figure out. I fell to my right, collided with the divider with the resulting impact rotating me by a full 180 degrees even as I was still sliding. Wow! Even in that state of mind I could only marvel at the fact that I was able to stand on my own, despite the intensity of the crash. I looked at the marks again. I fell to my right, hit the divider. What if there was no divider? I would be bang in the middle of the oncoming traffic lane. There was a divider. Thank goodness for that. I hit the divider at quite a good speed. What if my bike had disintegrated? It was a solidly built machine, renowned for its reliability. Thank goodness for that. I have already visited the weight aspect of my bike, how were my legs spared from being crushed under this weight? The crash guard. Thank goodness for that. If I was to be even faster than I was, how different would this have been? I’ve put in close to a 100,000 km in my life in multiple machines so far, so the hunger for speed is largely satiated. Thank goodness for that. I am not what you would call a devout person. My prayers and visits to temples are more out of a force of habit and to keep myself from venturing too far out towards atheism. I prefer being in the middle ground. But at this particular time, probably because of the state of mind, I found myself counting my blessings. My superstitious side was emboldened. I had only recently posted an image about a particular milestone I crossed on my bike; I found myself asking if that resulted in someone casting an evil eye on me. The rationale was content in observing the happenings from the sidelines. The main catalyst in the decision of buying a Royal Enfield was the other accident wherein I could not remember a darn thing. I had apparently rode my bike straight into the back of a stationary taxi. What should have been a minor thing resulted in the bike being severely impacted. The front end was out of action; it wouldn’t even budge. During the dissection of this accident there were several theories as to how the entire accident happened. These theories I reserve for another time, if that time ever comes. One of the corollaries of one among these theories was that if the bike was a Bullet, the damage would have been minimal, since it is after all a Bullet; it is made like a gun. That seed of an idea grew into a creeper weeding into pretty much all thoughts of mine for the next few days. A lot of parleys ensued at home. The end result was that I got what I wanted. So there I was, a slightly matured biker, riding a solid machine, with a crash guard, at an acceptable speed, in a manner agreeable with the laws of the land, in traffic that was decent, in front of a Toyota and not any other large vehicle, and still ending up on the wrong side of an accident. I asked myself why this happened and did not find an answer. I cursed the offending driver and wished the same upon him. But I also realized, I wouldn’t gain anything out of it. True that it was fully his fault, but I have been lucky because of a number of twists and turns in life that resulted in a situation wherein I had a lucky escape from a major disaster. What if he isn’t that lucky? My accidents have always resulted in more pain to my family than me. Why should his family also be pained as a result of my anger? The summation of a wide variety of factors and happenings over an equally wide range of times has most definitely enabled me to walk away relatively unscathed. As I waited for my help to arrive, I somehow felt quite convinced that this hit and run absconder would not have had a similar set of combinations in his life but the exact opposite. He would be troubled some other way. I attribute this to the philosophy of yin and yang – everything comes in equal halves – rather than to supernatural elements. The pain and inconvenience I am feeling currently would be felt by him too in equal measures. Yin Yang also assures me of equal amounts of happiness, and therefore too him too. I thought of all of this, and was continually feeling uneasy. This is a vent for all that unease. It is the literal equivalent of a boil being burst open with a pin so that all the bad blood can be squeezed out. Harbouring ill thoughts towards him makes me feel agitated, causes me pain in my wounds as I feel my hair-raising. I need to stop that. So all I can end up saying is, let him prosper and may his tribe increase