20th February 2010!-- Full of Mixed Feelings

Yeah, I know this post has been pending for an year now. But, as promised, I’ve posted it on its first anniversary lol! :D

19th February 2010-- It was just another Friday and the trio- Prashant, Raghu and I, decided to come to work on our bikes. It was earlier that same day that I picked Chandra and met Murthy, his girlfriend, Susan and Ramesh at Imax. We had booked tickets to watch Leader, a Telugu movie which doing quite some rounds about being a movie with a great message. And, it did prove its worth. The movie was good indeed and we headed to work after movie.

On one of our many tea breaks and smoke breaks at work, Chandra and us, the trio, met at the smoker’s area of the IT campus and we discussed everything from office politics to the newest bike on the road and its reviews. Focus then shifted to a bike ride post shift and all of us agreed to a short one. The day quickly passed by with lots of work, training sessions and lots of Table tennis too!!

       At around 3:20 am on 20th February 2010, we descended to the cellar after a couple of Table tennis matches and admired our bikes. Prashant and Raghu led the way out of the cellar, I was behind them and Chandra was my pillion. Friday’s particularly have a lot of vehicles in the parking lot and that day was no different. We zigzagged past the vehicles in the parking lot and it was during one of those moments that the inclination of our bike was so high that, a rear view mirror of a parked 2-wheeler almost brushed us. It was a calculated and intentional move from me but Chandra went hyper, asking me not to perform such manoeuvres. We laughed our way out with me telling him there’s nothing to worry et al. We got out of the Ascendas IT Park and hit the best stretch of road on the opposite side. The three of us rode at an average speed of maybe 90kmph, until we saw a new road being laid towards Gachibowli. We decided to explore that place, since it was made after blasting away beautiful rock formations. It was a mini jungle till about an year ago, with lots of peacocks, snakes and God knows what else! Rumours have it that leopards patrolled that huge patch of rocks and trees too.

              A moderate speed of 40kmph was what we maintained, since there were no street lights and we didn’t know what lay ahead of us. We reached what seemed a dead end, barricaded we saw the sprawling Durgam cheruvu(durgam- mystic, cheruvu- lake) ahead of us. We spoke for a while- discussed how blatant man can be to destroy patches of nature, this way. We planned a short trip within city and agreed to set out immediately, and that is when Prashant wheeled his bike and zoomed. Since we all knew how the road was, we had that extra sense of confidence in riding fast. I overtook him and Raghu was right behind me, followed by Prashant and we were going at speeds no less than 80kmph. Chandra, all this while kept telling me to go slow- I paid no heed as usual. A minute later, I was shocked to see there was no road ahead of me. The road took a sharp right curve and there was no way I could brake completely at that speed. It wasn’t a problem since we could all do those sharp manoeuvres without braking, by inclining ourselves and our bikes , thereby creating that curving radius seem easier. But, life had other plans for us. I braked a little bit, which was required, only to realise loose gravel under the tires. The bike skid a little bit. It was here, that I feared I couldn’t control the bike. If I wouldn’t brake, there’d be a pile of metal and flesh on one of the many boulders on the road side. I had to make a curve, even if it meant we’d skid and fall down ON THE ROAD. And so, I did! I braked a little more and this time, the rear tire moved to the left. That was just the skid I was looking for. I accelerated and we were off the curve, but no more in control of the bike.

Those few seconds between the final skid and the fall seemed like an eternity. Chandra almost dislodged my shoulder blades by pressing my shoulders that tight. After what seemed to be an eon’s time, I sensed my knee touch the tarmac and suddenly, everything happened in slow motion. Me and my Unicorn scraped the surface of the road for 20 metres or so and then I saw Chandra roll over me, he was shouting, I guess? His voice was soon succeeded by another metallic sound and I turned back while we were still in motion. I saw Raghu skid in pretty much the same fashion too and I still can’t seem to describe what went through me at that time. It was funny that he followed suit too! I looked further back and saw Prashant brake and come to a proper stop without a skid. That was disappointing(I know! :O) and I exclaimed “SHIT” rather loudly, all this while we were still skidding. I was thinking it would be so cOoL if all of us fell down. Such a weirdly bad thought. Sorry Prashant :P!!

Raghu's Bike-- A wreck!!

 Me and my bike finally stopped about 30 metres from where we first skid and I was stuck under the bike. I instantly pushed my bike aside and checked with Chandra- I was scared he was hurt ‘cos I heard him shout. He said he was alright but looked to be in pain. I was in definite pain too but checked with Raghu and he got up laughing and surprisingly nothing happened to him. His bike was reduced to a wreck, though! Prashant came running and he was laughing too and we had a great laugh. It was then that I looked down and saw the right trouser of my favourite jeans torn to shreds near the knee. An entire patch, the size of my palm was missing on my right trouser. I looked at my right elbow and it was an awful scene. About three inches of flesh, a few centimetres deep was missing and my right palm was beyond recognition too. It was black and with blood near the wrist. Focus shifted to my right leg and I slowly folded whatever was left of my right trouser to my thigh and what we saw was horrible. Half an inch of flesh, the size of a 2 Rupee coin was missing from my right knee. It was bleeding and I could feel the blood soaked sock in my right shoe.

Prashant and Chandra- The best Nurses!

The pain wasn’t that great- maybe ‘cos it needed time to hit me? I don’t know! I still don’t understand how I convinced Prashant, Raghu and Chandra that I would ride my bike till office. We did and we decided to wash the wounds at Cyber Pearl and not at our IT campus. We stopped near a tea stall and got some water to wash my wounds. But lol, how would I wash my wounds, without taking a couple of photographs of myself and Raghu’s bike!! So we had this photoshoot, which I am sure the three of them thought was unnecessary! I took out the med kit from my bike and handed it to them.  They actually finished off with a perfect medical dressing. I just can’t thank them enough for what they did, they probably had a little blood from me, on them. Well, I never thanked them for it.  I won’t either :P... We sat there for a while, laughing about what happened. No one probably realised how badly I was hurt. Not even me! We were all hungry and I insisted we eat something. And lo! We planned to go to Ameerpet and fill our stomachs with a 5:20 am waala early morning breakfast. I rolled my right trouser to an inch above my right knee. I threw my blood soaked right sock. Put on my right shoe and we sped to Ameerpet. No, our speeds weren’t different. We rode at our normal, sensible, traffic rules abiding speeds. What was surprising was, Raghu's bike took all the beating and he wasn't hurt at all, except for some minor scratches. Mine was quite the opposite!! I took all the beating and my bike was super fine, except for the right rear view mirror which was shattered to a beautiful mess :D

                      I still wish someone could have recorded people’s reactions when we reached Ameerpet. I clearly looked a wreck with crape bandages on my right knee and right elbow. Blood here and there, my right trouser over my knees and my left trouser all fine shine. I didn’t give a damn. Ordered some yummy paneer dosa and hogged on it. It was after having breakfast that the pain started to set in! I couldn’t lift my legs over my bike. I did it with discomfort and once I did it, It was hard to keep my leg over the brake. I did it and finally reached home! Everyone was asleep. I didn’t want to wake them up and so, I washed myself a bit and went to the hospital all by myself :D. The doctor looked at the knee and my elbow and said, “There is nothing left to do a stitch! We’ll have to let the flesh and skin grow. What the hell did you do to come up with something this gross?”- I replied, “I was playing basketball and I got toppled and I fell down, scraping the rough surface!”.. I lied. I lied ‘cos I didn’t want the doctor to tell me “Hey! This is an accident case. Go file a case with the Police first!”. May be he wouldn’t but I didn’t want to risk it. I was in no shape to go to the police station, file a case et al for nothing!

The nurse came to dress the wounds. She first gave me a Tetanus shot and she worked her way through the painful dressing procedure. I probably would have agreed to run all the way till the Himalayas in exchange for a painless dressing! All done, I came home and switched the laptop on and saved those bloody photographs from my phone to my lappy. The rest is history! It took me 3 and half weeks to start walking with a limp. Took 3 months to walk properly! Was fun all through. Oh and yeah, I would have agreed to run a circle around the world in exchange for all the subsequent alternate day wound dressings. They were even more painful!!

Like the saying goes- “No Pain, No Gain!”, I am yet to realise the gain!! All those anti-biotics and meds only made my internal resistance weaker and soon, the doctor next door was my best friend last year :D.

I just called Raghu, Chandra and Prashant, to remind them about this day and we had a good laugh again :D. Friends like these are worth the fall, after all eh? – Ooh this probably is the gain after the pain !! :P

And yeah folks, I probably would not be writing this blog post, if I didn’t have my Helmet on! So you know- WEAR IT to SAVE IT! ;-)

~~Peace

R.o.H.i.T....