If one was to analyse about a situation, it would either be to think about what went wrong or what went right.I am pondering over an incident that happened on March 22,2009. I had been to the Innovative Film City located at Bidadi about 40 kms away from Bangalore. It was a company sponsored outing and after having seen some of the snapshots of the Film city,i was looking forward for some enjoyment.
We reached the venue at about 10.45 AM and after all the preliminaries, simultaneously giving our cameras some hectic usage,the first thing we did was to watch a 10 min clip of the epic "SHOLAY".The best thing about this was the setting - a small mobile village theatre with wooden benches and dim lighting.We saw the "Yeh Dosti" song and the famous Gabbar-Kaalia sequence in the 10 mins.As we moved along , next on our itinerary was "Velocity". This was the Go-Karting event.
As we reached the track,my first view of the track was that it was an amateur one and not professional.Secondly,it was a first time for me, hence it suited me well, although i wasn't scared, since it can only be a bit tough if one doesn't know how to ride a car.Thirdly, the mindset was to enjoy as it was not a race.
Everybody waited for their turn to get onto the track and so did i.The track consisted of two types of Karts.One was a double seater, called the "Family Kart" and the other was the normal single seater.Some of my colleagues went on a ride on the Family kart with their wives,while the rest of us,namely bachelors waited for our karting rides.
There was one round of family kart followed by a round of single karts.This was succeeded by another family kart round and when this was not yet finished, the track instructors called for the next single seater rounds.
The track pit lane has 8 cars and i got to sit on Car no.7. Although not superstitious, i consider no.7 as one of my favorite numbers(not lucky). Another of my colleague was in car no.8 (I'll keep him anonymous with his initials-Mr.A).I sat down on the car and was adjusting my legs on the pedals.The scary thing was that the Fuel tank(rather a plastic kerosene can) was placed right in front my seat,below the steering wheel. But it seemed to be safely attached.
The instructor guided all of us one by one with the usage of pedals. I was just putting on my safety helmet and the instructor came to me and said -
"The right pedal is for the Brake and left pedal for the Accelerator. Hold the Steering firmly to control at the curves. If you bang other vehicles you shall be disqualified. If you bang the boundary safety walls you will be fined".
Saying this he proceeded to car no.8 to repeat the same.
I turned back to him and asked-
" hello boss,'right one' is the brake... right??" .
This is because the the positions of the pedals are the other way round in a Car.
The guy nodded and also told me-
"please fasten your helmet strap sir".
I said "Ok" and turned back.Since my legs are a bit long, i adjusted myself on the pedals once again.The next thing to do for me was to fasten the helmet strap.
After having read the story till here, one might feel, "Abey kya paka raha hai??". But let me make clear my intention about blogging this real life incident- "Luck ya Bad Luck????"
"BANG!!!!!!!!!!". This was what i heard the next second. The time gap wasnt even enough for me to put the helmet strap and the next moment i was sandwiched between two cars- One, on which i was seated and the second -car no.8- which was on top of me.So what happened???
None of the cars had been started, since the instructors themselves come and pull the trigger starting from car no.1.
However Mr.A had rammed his car right on the top of my head, sending my helmet for a wild toss and my Head went crashing against the steering wheel- "WHAM!!!!".
The next moment i was trying to wriggle my way out of this mess and the weight of the car was much more than a 100 kilos.Goodness Gracious!! It was a Go KART after all....After a few seconds one of the instructors came and pulled me out and another of my colleague came running(Mr.H) and saw my forehead-"Oh man...you've got a cut...."
I saw backwards as to what happened and there was Mr.A's car on my car and he was getting out of it.
That is when i came to know what had happened. A colleague of mine(Mr.R) on a family Kart who had set off in the previous round had come to park his vehicle in the pit,but what he did was to ram his kart on to kart no.8. He was arriving at such a speed that the momentum caused the havoc to happen with such ferocity.
I was simply taken for a first aid, people waiting for the karting rounds backed off seeing this sight and all of them were running around me asking -
"Are you feeling giddy?? Drink some water...Dont worry its just a small cut..".
I sat on the bed and asked the lady there.."Is the cut deep??". She cleaned the wound and said "Dont worry, it's just a skin deep wound"...They checked my nose and back and it was fine.
I closed my eyes and thought of my beloved people, trying desperately not to panic. My manager(Mr.V) asked me "You've had a tetanus injection recently??"
I said "Yes..in Jan"...As the wound was getting dressed I was given water to drink.I was still closing my eyes,trying not to vent my frustration.
The next thought that crossed my mind was " What's this that i went through just now????"
My bad luck that i faced this without any fault or involvement of mine ???
OR
Is this life's way of showing its cruelty to me??
OR
My Good luck that i was not seriously injured as Steve Waugh was in Kandy in 1999 after a dash with Jason Gillespie??!!!
OR
My Good luck that the cars did not catch fire and were not blown up into pieces??!!!
A week after the 'accident'.....I still am searching for answers to these......!!!!
