Driving In Chennai! - Accident I

I can write a whole book of Accidents that I had met with when I used to live in Chennai...Most of them were not life threatening...They were just bruises and scratches but this one I am going to write put me less than an inch away from death...

Alright...As usual the guest star of this drama is my best friend D (remember she starred in my blog before.

D and I were both on her TVS Champ driving down Nelson Manickam Road from Anna Nagar 15th Street on our way to Santiago Classes (I think)...It must have been some weekend as we were both in color dress (hehehe! That's we used to call regular clothes during school days). She was driving and I was pillion riding sitting on one side (like a girl wearing a skirt would and not like a dude)...

I am usually a very bad pillion rider...In the sense I am a backseat driver...No matter what I will give my two cents such as moving to the left or right, brake, go the light is green, now why did you stop, etc...But this particular day I was tired and decided that I should have confidence in D as I have been riding with her for two or more years now and relaxed...

I relaxed, yup and just for a few seconds...I looked around and then turned my attention once again to the road in front of me...It was right before what was Palaniappa Theater on NM Road...A local dude was standing with his lungi folded up...His hands on his hips and with an urgency in his stance...I don't know what he must have been thinking...Slowly behind him a three wheeler rickshaw with a big open carriage in the back used to carry veggies, etc, was moving closer to the dude...D decided that to go faster she could drive between the dude and the three wheeler and avoid the big traffic on the road...

So here we are doing like 35 kmph on a heavily packed road trying to do the squeeze hoping that the dude or the three wheeler rickshaw will give us enough space...So with great judgment D drove between them...There was just enough space and we would have made it through...Until the dude turned around...and in one split second his hand hit D's handle bar which got locked into the grill on the open carriage of the rickshaw thus dragging us down on the street...

My head hit the road with a thud...Really...I was okay...Really, I opened my eyes, something black and yellow just rolled over my hair that was all over the road now...My hair strained and I felt the pull...I looked up to see what that was all about...Nothing...Just a LORRY!!! A big frigging lorry...Painted yellow with black tires. Remember those Lorries that said SOUND HORN OK PLEASE in India...Same thing...Rolled just an inch away from my head pulling my hair...

Now I decided...If I could have seen a lorry so close to my head and not felt any pain...Then I was dead by now...So I with lot of wisdom I closed my eyes and went to sleep...You know I was dead...

In the meantime D woke up...Brushed her hands of the sand from the road and saw that someone had pulled her bike up and a crowd had gathered...Mostly men...D is now conscious that she was looking shabby...One of the men asked her...Madam are you alright...To which D walked up to her bike, turned her rear view mirror and checked if her hair was okay...The dude got pissed off...He immediately turned his attention to me who was still sleeping on the street...Everybody started asking D to wake me up...D got paranoid and she walked up to me...Shook me three times with her hands...I refused to budge (I am dead) and then she gave me a kick with her leg and told me to get the hell up from the road and not to make a scene...

HEHEHEHE...I really did not know I was making a scene but by now a bigger group had gathered and I slowly sat up...I asked...Where am I??? And D told me on the bloody street and if I did not get up then I will have a lorry on my head in two minutes...I stood up and checked for the dude and the three wheeler and both were missing...I too followed D's step...Walked to the mirror to check that I did not get any marks on my face before telling people around that I was okay and that they could leave...

All the heroes left...I kicked D before helping her push the TVS Champ to the nearest mechanic shop where we also got some first aid...The vehicle was fixed for Rs.50 and we went to our class late that evening...

Why did I write about this? Well, yesterday Girish and I were discussing history of different marks on our hands and face when I noticed that I still had the mark from the small injury I had sustained in the accident and I decided that I finally got something worthwhile to write about and break my writer's block...