Sunday, May 25, 2008

Day 6 - I am alive




I have always been a firm believer in destiny. Despite the best efforts things take place when they are destined to. On my flight of US airways from Canada there inflight shopping magazine had some very interesting products which for an electronic maddy like me was great.I tried to locate where in store i can find some of the things and there was a store in NY which had these things. So we changed our plan to go to the outlet mall today and went to the City. We parked the car in NewJersey near the Exchange Place station. Sangeet used to live here till some time back and its a great place to be. remembered her a lot at that time. It was great to roam in 5th avenue. NY is NY. Nothing beats it. And being a long weekend there was a huge crowd in the streets. Raman Uncle was also to come into the city and we decided to meet at 6 PM neat the exchange place station in Mew Jersey. We were just roaming around the city trying to pass the time when Raman Uncle called that he will be delayed so we fixed up to meet at Pankajs place. We headed home at around 3 PM - thought of going to Walmart to pick up some chocolates for the kids and a luggage. There was a huge traffic and cars were just bumper to bumper that too at 80 - 90 Kms speed. And then this happened.There was a series of accidents and we hit the car in front of us with a bang. A real hard crash at that speed with screaming breaks. Just thinking of that shivers runs down your spines.The airbags were out. Thank God we were alive and had no injury's. In five minutes there were siren screaming cops and ambulances. They just checked out if we were ok. There were couple of guys in front of us who looked badly hurt and the ambulances took them. The efficiency with which the police works here is worth seeing. In half an hour all 8 cars hit were removed. Pankajs car was the worst damaged more on the side I was sitting. Check the photo attached. Notice all airbags out. I had a slight bruise on my forehead because of hitting the airbag. We are alive today - No.1 because of the seat belt and No 2 - the airbags. I remember each frame of the accident.If I have to describe that fraction of a second with which it happened - The car in front braked suddenly. Pankaj applied brakes - the car screamed , tilted a bit and hit with a BANG - the airbags came out on the face and the windshield cracked. All in some milliseconds. There was lot of smoke coming out from the bonnet and lot of liquid/oil spilling on the road. Both of us looked at each other and were relieved that we were safe. God has been great. This was an experience to forget. Lesson learnt - never start your car without buckling in. We were saved today because of that. As I started the blog with Destiny - this accident was destined to happen. I had no plan to go to the city today. Secondly we were to stay in the city today till 6 pm but as Raman uncles program got delayed we started early at around 3 PM back.And this happened at 3.30 PM.

Thanks to all of you for your wishes because of which I am alive today.

3 comments:

Pankaj Mall said...

An accident by definition is an identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.

The key is to learn from it and hope that it doesn't happen again.

This incident reinforced my faith in almighty and goes on to show that you can't escape destiny. I guess the wishes of loved ones and faith in almighty protects you in moments of crisis and uncertian times.

Coming back to lessons learnt -
1. Always buckle up when sitting in a moving car, no matter whether you are driving it or you are one of the passenger sitting (in front or back).

2. Do not rely on traffic for your safety. A safe distance between moving cars even when everyhting seems smooth is a must. You can't rely on others judgement or your own reaction time.

After introspection I do think that this could have been avoided if I had kept a safe distance but then you are wiser after the event else accidents won't happen.

Right now I am staring at 5 points for moving violation under traffic laws which will cost me a fortune in insurance premium. I am going to plead not guilty in the muncipal court and hope that the judge waives away couple of points.

This will be one of those nostalgic memory which me and bhaiya will share everytime we meet in future. I had a gala time with him and it was a pleasure having him in my tiny messed up place.

God bless!

Sandeep said...

Did u have the insurance guys talking to you today?

Laxminarain Mall said...

Believe in destiny and try to believe that it is always destined to good in long term.Easy to say, very difficult to follow, but no alternative.

During this trip, I had dreadful intuition of such happening. That's why I always phoned to enquire safe return to night stay place everytime. I tried to kick out such thoughts from mind many times as suggested by all but could not and that made your stay away very miserable for me this time.