Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Drive.....

I love to drive. (Contrary to what my friends believe cause I'm forever asking them to fetch me!). I love my mornings drive to work everyday. I love swearing at everyone on the road. I love talking to people in the cars next to me knowing they can't hear me. (While most of my comments are on their driving skills, I must confess I do often also comment on their hair and their clothes and even ask questions like 'What did you have for breakfast boss'...all without them knowing of course!). I love listening to music. I love getting behind the wheel after a long holiday. The feeling is very liberating....the fact that you can get yourself to wherever you want to go. Having said this, I have the worst parking skills in the world, my car gets a new scratch every month and I don't have any aspirations of driving a Merc....In fact, I can't drive anything but my Santro!

So day before yesterday I was on my way to work as usual taking the Delhi-Gurgaon Highway. The office is 6 flyovers away. The office is 6 high speed flyovers away.

The traffic was smooth. Many offices were shut. The morning was lazy. I was done with 2 flyovers and on my way to the 3rd. A thought. What if I were to ever have an accident? Thought over.

I start my ascent on the 3rd flyover. Speed 70. (The limit is 90 so you can imagine the speed of the traffic). Am in the middle lane. There's a car parked on the left side of the bridge.

Suddenly a bike bangs into the car. Cannot see the man who was on the bike but his bike comes flying and lands up right in front of my car. I have a choice. Drive over the bike. Or swerve the car. I don't decide. I'm frozen. I'm on autopilot.

I swerve to the right. And then swerve to the left. And the car swerves to the right again....like a life of its own. I know my foot's on the brake. I know I'm holding the steering wheel with all my strength. I can hear screeching sounds. And they're coming from my car. I can feel the world spinning. I can see the road coming at me. I need to stop before I hit the divider. And inches away from the divider, I stop.

It's not over. I now realise I'm perpendicular to the traffic. And there are fast moving cars coming right at me. The only thing I can now do is raise my hand and hope it all stops. And it does....

I don't know if my car did a 360 spin. I don't know how I managed to stop. I don't even know if the traffic had stopped for me or for the bike. But I do know that my knees felt like jelly and I knew I had to have the courage to move on. Someone signals me to keep driving. I reverse. Get the car back straight. And move on. Like my near death experience didn't happen.

I wish I'd stopped and seen what happened to that man. I wish I'd helped. But all these thoughts came 15 mins later when I was in the safety of my office parking. Till then I was just completely numb....driving on complete autopilot....

9 comments:

KarSub said...

Zee, I'm glad your still with us.

Daroga said...

wow.. that was close !!
glad that nothing happened.
Freeways can get really nasty!!!
Drive safe :)

Vadapoche said...

Glad you are safe! You seem to drive so much like me, try to keep calm always, because otherwise reaction times drop, i know having suffered something likewise.

I scratch my car very often even if it is stationary...

Take care and enjoy driving.

Horn Please OK! said...

Frikking hell!!!! Thank God you're fine .. that must have been crazy scary!!

Anonymous said...

oh my gawd! zee
i am so sorry i didnt know it was this serious
I tho simply brushed it off as a serious accident for th guy
i didnt know you swerved and all and all
gosh
hugs
hugs
hugs
will ask mama to pray a shukrana for u !

Arpz said...

man, lady, take care of yourself... *shiver shiver* good you are safe ... *hugs* .. muah

WSW said...

Thank God ur safe!!OMG!!

Bullshee said...

Woah...close one...

Glad you're still with us safe and sound...

Goes to show, doesn't matter how careful we are driving, there's always a risk...

DPhatsez said...

Close encounters of the vehicular kind..your guardian angel saved the day for you!
Glad you lived to tell the tale (whoa! literally!)

my first time here: So hi! :)