This afternoon, as I was driving off to the club with Lekha to attend a farewell lunch of a dear old friend, disaster struck.
Sarath, in his late 20s, was on a borrowed Yamaha and was trying to overtake me through the left when I'd begun to turn to the same side to enter the naval base area. The scenes that flipped past my eyes, then on, were like seeing clips of a fast action movie in slow time.
There was a not-so-loud-thump as I eased the wheel to zero and saw the youngster being hurled off his bike and land on his head about 5 mts ahead of me. I'd, by then, come to a dead stop and saw him get up, stagger towards me and as I got out and confronted him, he accused me of having switched on the 'left turning indicator' at the last moment which didn't give him much leeway to take avoiding action. Local support was quick to come to his aid and had already taken the side of the lighter vehicle - a bike vs car situation and mine happened to be a Chevrolet Cruze, that too! I did not have the heart to tell anyone about the simple fact that since he was overtaking me from the left - the wrong side - the dice was loaded in my favour should the incident attain a legal hue, as I was only bothered about his well being.
Therefore, without going into verbal calisthenics, I'd the youngster moved to the nearby hospital after revealing my identity and waited for help to come from my office nearby. Thankfully, the doctor who'd inspected the youngster confirmed that except for the loss of skin on both his hands and other minor abrasions, there was no cause to worry. The young man had, luckily, strapped on his helmet well and therefore, was safe from the angle of head injury.
The bike's actual owner had then come alongwith his friends who're quick to realise that there weren't any major defects and were all too eager to sort the case amidst us. After giving my address and contact numbers, I drove off my Cruze straight to the service station for corrective action.It's gonna take about 10 days for the repairs to be effected and will cost about 30 grand!
Lekha and Sebastian, my saarthi, felt that the car was jinxed and have already made plans to take corrective action on its receipt after repairs and I've given my meek assent. Deep within me, however, I can't forgive myself for not having anticipated the point of impact and to that extent, I consider myself to be a bad driver!
But above all that, I shall be on tenterhooks, for the next 48 hrs about the youngster, because that's the time during which the effects of head injury, if any, could manifest.
God, please take care of young Sarath!!
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