Near Death Experience

It was a rainy day; they had predicted one of the biggest storms of the winter. I was enjoying with my friends Pallavi and Sai at places like beauty parlor and Starbucks. It was too cold outside. We were sipping hot coffee, enjoying rain and after chatting for 2/3 hours we decided to meet again in Christmas holidays. Pallavi and I dropped Sai at her place and then we two were in the car, Pallavi was driving.

It was her

brand new car. We were heading towards an Indian restaurant. It was around 7pm and we decided to go by some other road as the one on which we were driving was jammed with traffic. So we took a left turn and decided to explore a new road.
Traffic was moving very slowly which gave us more 20 minutes to talk; yeah as if the entire afternoon was not enough.

We were discussing about how difficult it is to get a driving license in the US which is good as it reduces road accidents.

Then we stopped on a four way stop, waiting for our turn. And finally it was our turn, we were happy that now we were entering a traffic free zone ahead, both were really hungry, we started moving straight, I was sitting on the right hand side. I saw a van coming from the right side with a speed more than 50 miles/hour (speed limit was 30).
I saw that the van is coming very fast and I felt that it is not going to stop, I screamed and then I was quiet as if I was watching a movie. I had detached myself from everything. It felt as if it is happening to someone else.

We were already in the middle of the intersection. Pallavi saw this van and pressed hard on the brakes and I heard her screaming Oh my God, Oh my God!
And I was sitting there like a statue unmoving and without any expressions, feelings, shock, fear or anything. Seriously I had nothing in mind, now I wonder why… why I didn’t feel the fear of death/injury or anything.

After 1 minute I heard Pallavi screaming Rasika are you ok? Rasika are you ok, in that one minute I don’t remember what happened, where was I, what was I thinking. It was a hard hit we were thrown 10 feet ahead on the left hand side.
I saw the broken windows of our car and fumes from the engine. Air bags and seat belts had saved us.

I realized I am still alive, just one thought struck my mind ‘Life is short and you never know what is going to happen in next two minutes, so what exactly do I want to do with whatever time I have’, thinking about it I got down from the car and so did Pallavi.
Her car was smashed up real bad. Everything in the front side was broken. It was total. I looked behind to see who hit us.

I saw the van; it had hit a pole on the road. Its driver was still sitting in the car. It seemed he was relaxing there, smoking and enjoying the breeze with drops of rain.
I saw Pallavi going towards him; I thought she is going to slap him now. But, she went there and asked him “Are you fine?” and I was stunned with her question. Yeah, that truly taught me a lesson, a lesson of humanity.

Well he didn’t even bother to come out of his van. He was still smoking calmly.

Pallavi was calling her friends. While I was thinking to call 911, a lady came from behind and said “I am so happy to see you girls alive, I didn’t expect that you will make it. I have called the police and they will be here in a few minutes.” Yeah, this angel had come to help us. She had witnessed everything.

She had just completed her sentence and I heard police cars coming from a distance. I was startled to know that they respond so quickly (unlike police in Bollywood films). They arrived within 2 minutes or so with a group of paramedics who were there to deal with any kind of injuries.

After question/ answers and showing documents etc, we came to know that the man who hit us had no license and insurance! How can anyone do that and put others lives at risk…
He was put into jail. While being handcuffed, he still looked cool and unflustered ….
That reminded me of ‘Vyomkesh Bakshi’ (detective from one of the very famous detective series). He used to have the same serene look on his face throughout the episode, while he was solving the case or when the case was solved or then when he was in love.

On the next day I tried to forget about everything by watching movies, reading books and sleeping in the afternoon.
I had a dream while I was napping that someone has bumped into my car and my car is now in the air. I woke up terrified.

By God’s grace nobody had any major injury and both of us are slowly recovering from the concussions.