It must have been 1994 and we had just moved to Goa. I was a young professor trying to make a mark and enjoy life at the same time. I had a Bajaj Chetak to get around. My wife and I found it was fun on the two wheeler to get around in Goa. Life was without too much of care. On that fateful evening, my wife wanted some pictures to be framed and we were riding along the road next to the Mandovi towards Panjim and were near the Ribandar hospital building (where the B School I was teaching is located).
Those of you who know the place would realise that the building juts out onto the road and there is a small curve on the road. A dumper truck was ahead of us. Suddenly, a trax or jeep which was over speeding appeared from the hidden side of the curve and that too on the wrong side of the road and the truck driver ahead of me had to brake suddenly. He had to do that to save the lives of the people who would have most certainly been crushed if there was a head on collision . The truck stopped so suddenly that I almost stood on my brake pedal to stop my scooter; but the force with which I applied the brake broke the pedal off its anchoring and my scooter did not have any brakes now. The scooter had slowed down but the scooter still moved forward and smashed on to the back of the truck. My head hit the low beam of the dumper. My wife was wearing a saree (see how clearly I remember) and was riding sideways and managed to jump off unhurt.
As always, when I drive two wheelers, I had my helmet on. The impact of the hit was taken by the helmet and I could hear the “thunk” of metal meeting metal. In spite of the impact, I managed to escape with a cut inside my mouth from the plastic visor. I bled like a pig from that. My students came of the cafe next doors and from the hostels and took me over to hospital. The doctors took a look at my wound and decided that it would heal on its own and an X Ray of my head was taken as a precaution. As I write this, I can still feel the small indentation in my mouth where the cut was. I was home in a couple of hours. The pictures we wanted to get framed that evening remain unframed even after 17 years!
If I was not wearing the helmet, most certainly I would not have been home that evening. Most likely the undertakers would have been on work that night trying to put together a smashed head. May be I overdramatize? The least that would have happened would have been some work for the neuro-specialists of the medical college that evening. I am not sure if Goa had CT scans then. They would have been groping in the dark about the nature of the injuries inside my head. I could have been out of action for a few weeks. May be I would have had to be flown to Bangalore or Mumbai for some specialist treatment.
Why am I reliving that evening which is not a pleasant one? Something I read on the FB from brought it all back.
Every year, in all the years that I have spent in Goa, I end up with some student or the other involved in a major traffic accident or the other. Sometimes several. They get head injuries, nasty fractures of the jaw and so on. Every time, the extent of injuries could have been reduced if they were wearing helmets. I have lost students to traffic accidents. It is such a sad day for any professor to lose students who show so much of promise. I go out of the way to suggest that helmets are a protection whenever I meet them informally. Of course, I am ignored. After I moved to another town, I got news that one of the students died last week in a traffic accident. I barely knew him as I had not taught his batch; yet the feeling of sadness gripped me at the loss of young life.
And the feeling of frustration that these young guys and girls do not take the minimum precaution. Today I am mad again, reading something on the FB. The hostel warden of the B school where the death happened has introduced a new rule that students should not be allowed to ride out of the gates of the Institute on bikes without a helmet. One of the students has put this out on FB and several people have, as usual, commented on this. Some of these are wise cracks on how long the rules would last! There is a law (which applies the moment they step out on the public road) that one is supposed to wear helmets; so clearly all these kids who go out without helmets are breaking the law. When someone tries to put in a rule trying to help you keep on the safe side of the law and more importantly trying to keep you safe, they are taking pot shots at him.
When would these kids learn that it is better not to break the law and it is even better not to break ones head? I am almost sure that I am alive today because of the helmet I wore. I would not be writing this if I had not worn the helmet that evening. I almost broke my head that night. May be I would not have? I am quite thick headed to believe that kids would still listen?
Bala@Jaipur
3 comments:
Prof, this post reminds me of my own accident, where wearing a helmet saved me from a possible broken jaw and certain black eye... It's not just us kids, but even wizened elders who do not abide by this basic safety norm. And then there are others like me whose helmets are back home and are being too lazy to purchase another one out here.
I'm posting the link to ur article on Facebook, hoping it reaches more of us.
Deepika
Even though it is a rule that all two wheeler riders should wear a helmet, you often find youngsters trying to dodge the cop at the signal. When it is a rule to save one, I can't understand how they would want to avoid.
I too am alive because I had the sense to never ride without a helmet. Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm sure if people read it, some will get the point.
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