Hike on a Bike - Part II

The Wait :-
I wasn't very far from where i actually live and neither did my aunt take very long to get there, and yet quite a few things happened by the time she arrived with my sister. I was just resting on the footpath when the man named Praveen started making conversation, first with futile efforts of "lie down", "stay put" and "wash your face". From where I got the water you ask? Well,the water was provided by this girl, whose name my memory fails me to recall. (For further reference I shall name her Angel) Angel, as I remember her telling me and Mr.Praveen (who was standing beside me through the entire ordeal), was an inhabitant of one of the flats bang opposite to the place the accident had occured and on seeing the accident she had rushed to see if she could be of any help. Well, that was that, she even showed Mr.Praveen her house if ever she could be of help and was off back home taking the bottle of water. She DID seem genuinely concerned. Next to arrive was one of my sister's friend, who lived nearby the scene of the accident and was informed immediately, by my sister that I had met an accident in the vicinity, after my phone call home. She just came to check up on me, and informed my sister that I was quite alright with a few bruises here and there.

It was then, that I started examining the damage done to my body. Quite a few scratches here and there, none seemed too serious, no deep wounds but a nagging pain on my right shoulder. It was then that it hit me that I had a much awaited basketball tournament comin up and these injuries were not going to let me play the rather important tournament. And the next thing I knew, I found myself conversing with Mr.Praveen about where I studied and the conversation eventually lead to the basketball tournament I was likely to miss.

Arrival of the flustered aunt :-
My flustered aunt arrived at the scene and was brought uptodate with the events so far. She immediately examined my wounds, and sent me with my sister to the nearest hospital "GS hospital" which was just a few metres away from where I'd just encountered the accident. Here I recieved a nasty prick on my buttocks(or was it on my arm ...my arm I think... I guess I said buttocks only cos it adds a bit of humor to the otherwise rather serious post), courtesy a tetanus injection which my dear sister was kind enough to buy once the nurse subscribed for it after cleaning up the few external wounds that I had. This injection was followed by an enquiry by the local traffic police who seem to have FINALLY arrived at the scene after being called by Mr.Praveen as soon as he witnessed the accident. And I seem to have passed the enquiry with flying colurs as it featured only basic questions such as, Q : "Do you have a license?"; A : "Yes, I do."

This questonaire was followed by another agonisingly long wait for the manager of ABT couriers to arrive who seemed to have got stuck in traffic. When he DID arrive, after the departure of the traffic policemen, my aunt was involved quite a lengthy conversaton with him during which he examined my rather "injured" bike and the broken headlight of his company's van and came to an agreement with my aunt that neither of us will press charges against the other as from the account of both, the van driver and the bike rider's (i.e mine), the accident was caused due to the mistake of both parties (well, I made sure I sounded as tough I was very hurt enough to convince the manager this...I jus hope that manager never has the chance to read this post). This was followed by my aunt writing a letter stating the same and getting signatures of both parties on the letter and keeping a carbon copy of the letter and keeping it for herself (it would be worthy to note that neither the van driver nor I signed on this letter..twas just between my aunt and the manager).

Now, been there done that, I got home with my aunt and my sister in an auto rikshaw after my sister accompanied Mr.Praveen and her friend to her friend's place where my bike lay for that night as everyone deemed me unfit to ride my bike back home. (Oh, the bike was in riding condition it seemed to move when one started and accelerated it)

Just for the record, Mr.Praveen was a boxer who lost his chance to represent India in an international boxing tournament because he injured his head after involving himself in a bike accident just like this one. All because he wasn't wearing his helmet just like I wasn't when I met mine. I seemed to have had a lucky excape, while he had not been as fortunate.

Oh, and as for my tournament, I managed to get fit enough to play the upcoming basketball tournament and we won that tournament though I SUCKED throughout the tournament. But, we won, which is what that mattered, by a single point in the finals.

Hike on a Bike - Part I

Access to a computer, and time in my hands to type something out too. The combination of these two is very rarely encountered by a college student such as I, who keeps moving around with friends in his free time so that he may avoid going "home".

As of now, this maybe stale news to most of my friends(I should say all) that I recently (recently?...GOD!! this post is months old....)met with an accident while on my bike (on my bike?..more off it than on it). Here's how the events proceeded...

ON my bike :-
I was on my way back home from my college bus-stop after my basketball practice (which I happen to attend everyday at college) and was feeling quite full of myself having played well at practice that day. When one is full of oneself, it so happens that thinking about oneself ie self ego (isn't that REDUNDANT!!?) is not very benficial to self, for while on my way back I tried overtaking a certain auto-rikshaw at a bend. And after I came on the side of the rikshaw did I realize a tempo kind of truck (I'm sorry of it sounds oxymoronic) heading straight for me - headlights blazing!! And in an effort to avoid collision with the tempo (with ABT couriers written in bold...so, I found out later..) I veered towards my right...

OFF my bike :-
...but to little effect, for the next thing I knew I was flying, having been thrown off my bike. The bike scraping the road while I rolled on the floor and came to a stand still (STAND still?!... more like lie still.. or .. hmmm.. I hope you get the drift..) half a foot away from the footpath and before I knew it, I had an entire hoard of people helping me get off the road where i momentarily lay out o shock. Everyone asking me questions like : "Are you ok?", "Eyindra pa? Yebudi viyinday?"(thats tamil for "Get up child. How did you fall?". Oh, for the lesser readers, 'tamil' happens to be the local language here in chennai). I still don't understand the point of that last question, whoever it was who asked it, having perfectly witnessed the accident still did not have the wit to figure out what happened? (SHEEESH!!) Besides this particular person, everyone else seemed to have been very helpful. When they managed to lift me off the road I realized I wasn't exactly bruised enough to have needed help to get up and told them the same and they let me stand on my own. I struggled to find my cellphone which one of the "helpers" handed to me after parting it from the broken glass that now lay on the road, courtesy : a broken indicator from a bike and a damaged headlight from the truck aka ABT couriers van. Once having found my mobile phone, I realized it had no battery ie the battery was missing. After a short search i found the battery, but to no avail as it didn't have any charge. Seeing this one of the "helpers" offered to let me call from his phone : a nokia 3600, the "helper"'s name :
Praveen! Praveen _______ (curious, isn't it,I don't seem to remember asking him for his last name) ! I told him the number to my aunt's place which he dutifully dialled and gave the phone to me.

I informed my aunt about the accident which I had just encountered and told her I was quite alright and all she said was that she'd get to the spot asap. So, started the wait for the arrival of my aunt at the scene of the accident.

To be continued ...