Road Rash

Driving close to 30 kms a day, to and fro office for the past five months, I have (been part of as well as) witnessed some interesting, funny and risky incidents on the road. Here is a small compilation of them

1. With the signal on red, I was waiting near Saidapet when I saw the Hyundai Santro in front of me, moving backwards slowly. Assuming that the driver had overstepped the STOP line, I used my feet and slowly moved backwards. But the car just kept coming backwards!!! Before I could raise my voice, the back bumper of the car had already rammed into the right leg of the guy on my left and was still moving!! The person on my right saw what was going on and started slamming on the window panes of the car and shouted at the woman inside to place her legs on the brake, but the lady did not seem to understand what the commotion was all about. She just kept staring through the window!!! By this time the back of the car had starting jamming into the front wheel of the splendor on my left (I had back tracked way behind). The rider of the splendor was clearly exasperated and got down with seething anger writ large on his face and dashed towards the car (I don’t know what he intended to do) but luckily for the lady, the signal turned green and she speed away unaware of the commotion she had created behind her!!!

2. I had just left my apartments and was on my way to office. I was passing through a small street. A cyclist was coming in the opposite direction at a speed that was not expected from a cyclist!! All of a sudden, a guy in a bike crossed the road from the right towards the left. Neither did this guy observe the cyclist coming in the opposite direction nor did that fellow notice the bike. Before I could bat an eyelid the cycle had collided with the bike and the speed at which the cyclist came had caused him to be thrown off the cycle. He was lying in the shape of an inverted U, on the pillion of the bike!!!!

3. Returning from office, I was passing through the congested streets of Panagal park. Cycling in front of me was a teenager and very close to him, on his right was an autorickshaw. We all were inching forward. At some point of time, the cycle and the autorickshaw came so close together that the handle of the cycle (it was a modern cycle with a funky handlebar) got tangled with side railing of the auto. With the traffic clearing all of a sudden, the autorickshaw surged forward, pulling the hapless cyclist all along!!! After frantic shouts, the cyclist managed to gain the attention of the auto driver who stopped the vehicle and got out to help him!!

4. It was near Guindy Railway station where I saw this professional looking guy waiting for a bus. As I crossed the bus stop, a bus (which was supposed to stop at that busstop) over took me from the right and moved forward. All of a sudden, this professional looking guy overtook me from the left and ran behind the bus. He gave it a wild chase and finally caught hold of the bar and instead of climbing in, he kept running along with the bus. (I guess the poor guy had no idea of how to climb in!!!) With the passengers inside catching his hand, he gave a random leap which landed him on the footsteps; perched like a monkey!!! It was a hilarious site to see a guy in that attire, sitting like a simian in the footsteps of a town bus.
(It would have been a gruesome sight had he mistimed his leap)

5. I was on my way to my (earlier) office here in Ramapuram. My office was located on the right side of the road (while going towards it). At a particular point I was supposed to take a U turn. Because of this, I was riding my bike on the right most part of the road, very close to the median. Hearing a horn blare behind me, I moved my bike towards the left when a huge Red color Scorpio whizzed past me (The body had actually brushed against my right hand). Clearly shocked and stunned, it took me a few seconds to recover. The moment I recovered I shouted an extremely explicit word at the top of my voice at the driver. But something terrible was happening in front of me. The Scorpio swerved from right to left and back to right as the driver made frantic attempts to overtake the cars in front of him. It was then it occurred to me that either he was drunk or this was the first time he was behind the steering wheel. Both spelt extreme danger. As I continued watching with horror, a huge bang was heard and the Scorpio screeched to a halt. An old man, probably working in the company opposite to mine was lying on the road and next to him lay his scooter. Within a fraction of a second the Scorpio roared back to life and dashed ahead. Just like me, everyone around was too dazed to understand what was going on. Luckily for the old man, his helmet saved him.
That day I entered my office, kept my bag on the desk and sat there quietly for close to twenty minutes without doing anything. Then slowly thanking GOD for keeping me alive, I switched on the PC.

If you are interested, then you may also like to read about my other road adventures in the links below

Rs. 5.50 Sir!

Night Rider