30 Seconds

The following post was first written on 1 Jan 2019, and I am publishing it three years later.

This incident happened three weeks ago while I was returning home from my college. The mishap took place right at the Moti Bhoyan curve which is really close to the college. It was a day like any other day , except this time the speed breakers got the best of me. In hindsight, I can see that tailgating a car in an area abundant with speed breakers was certainly not the wisest of ideas. I’d been on its tail for about half a kilometre or so when the driver abruptly jammed the breaks at the speed breaker , the one before the Moti Bhoyan curve. At that moment , I was speeding at about 80 or so , so it was virtually impossible for my two wheeler to come to an instantaneous halt. Nevertheless , I applied the brakes as tightly as I could . Now here’s when things get a little out of hand. Anyone in their right mind would advise you not to use your front brakes at such speeds , but that’s exactly what I did.

What followed was me getting knocked off of my seats, which appeared like an amateur front wheelie attempt that you might catch on one of those ‘Funny Videos’ shows , though nothing was even remotely funny about it , at least for me. I landed head first on the ground , my vehicle slipped along the dusty part of the road. Although the helmet protected my head from any serious damage , my head got tangled with the helmet strap and that’s when uneasy feelings of suffocation began to take their toll on me. I struggled as hard as I could to get out of the helmet and was scrounging for air. My left leg had been contorted in an ugly fashion due to the terrible landing. By ‘landing’ here , I am referring to that split second when I was flung into the air and then hit the ground. My left leg was stuck and no matter how hard I tried , I was unable to lift the vehicle off it. While I was trying to lift the scooter off my leg , I still had the helmet on

The strap which is supposed to be underneath my chin was now resting on my eyes like a blindfold. A few more futile efforts to get the vehicle off me , all in vain. Now , the situation was getting a bit scary because I could feel bouts of unconsciousness , and it appeared as if I was spazzing in and out of consciousness while I lay sprawled on the road, occasionally zapping like an epileptic. The blazing surface of the road on a day when the mercury hit thirty two , was burning my skin, but that was the least of my problems now. I’d to get my head out of the helmet before I would lose consciousness and faint. After a while I just stopped trying because I knew this was a lost cause now. The breathing problem had worsened and now it was of paramount importance for me to get some air , and that would only be possible if I could somehow untangle the helmet strap that was now twined around my face like a creeper.

I could not see anything because my opaque visor was right in front of my eyes. At this point my left leg wasn’t a problem anymore for I could barely feel it now. From the POV of an aerial camera , at about a 100 ft or something the footage of me struggling to get up would be like that of a kid making an angel in the snow. But it was no christmas day for me. It was getting as bad as it could be , the sun was directly overhead and now I could really feel patches of my skin burning. Alas, I couldn’t budge. Then , out of nowhere a hand appeared , it picked up the scooter and set it aside with a kickstand and then another one picked me up. As soon as I got off the ground , I untied the helmet strap and hurled it away . Fresh air.

No more suffocation. It took me a moment or so to make out all that had just happened. The hitherto mysterious hands turned out to be that of the driver and passenger of the car right in front of me , who had applied the short brakes. They were students as well. They inquired if I was alright and offered to drive me to the nearest medical facility if needed. I was in a traumatic state , but after 5 minutes or so I’d settled down. I could drive. I expressed my solemn gratitude to these gentlemen and they were off. I’m still perturbed by the fact that all that I’ve just described as vividly and clearly as possible wasn’t a matter of 10 to 15 minutes. All the sporadic emotions , the fear of dying due to asphyxiation , the pain , the claustrophobia and the final admission of defeat. It’d all surfaced in less than 30 seconds.