A Night to Remember.....

October. Chennai. time for unforgetable moments of rain. The memories of lashing rain and the experience of last year still lingers fresh in my memories. I had never seen so much of non-stop downpour and it continued for three full days. Had to shift to my colleague’s place in KK Nagar inorder to escape the myseries at Velacherry. The road was flooded with water and I couldnt drive my bike as the water level was upto my Hip. With the assistance of Murali, managed to push my bike upto the main road and thanks to my 7 year old sweet heart as it chose not to give me any strating trouble. I still used to wonder why the rain God who refuse to show any mercy on Chennai all year long unleashes in October.

Oct 25, 2006. Yet another dull day in Office and my team was packing home. We used to travel to our client place in Sholls(Thats the new term coined by the IT ppl for Shollinganallur) in our PLs car. Its another mystery that in the evenings whenever we start home it starts raining. I very much doubt that one of our bosses sits in the sky and opens up the tap so that we will stay longer. Unperturbed by the October showers we started home in the car.

As we started, I got a call from my client(from Denmark) clarifying on some report. I convinced him that I will give him a new report first thing tomorrow morning. Unable to control the anxiety I opened up my laptop and checked on what could be wrong. Just wanted to ensure, so that I could give him a solution as promised. After analysing a bit I had a reason to give and also the solution. Feeling a bit releived put my laptop back into the bag.

By this time the rain had started pouring down and we were at descent speed so that we could reach home before it gets to bad. As it goes without saying there werent any lights by the road and it was very difficult to sight the path. Just then heard a heavy crash and I was tossed in the car. My legs felt a deep pain and I could see that the car had stopped and something was wrong. First I thought that we had mistakenly hit one of the pits which is very common when one drives by the chennai roads. But then when I saw Martin(who was driving the car) bleeding and Anbu with his hand to his head and I could clearly see blood drops from his head. Felt terrible. Meher also was holding on to his legs.

Got down from the car and was shocked to see the car had hit a broken divider and had struck. Gearbox was jammed and the engine did not start. Martin and Anbu assured that they were not fatally hurt. After it was clear that trying to backup the car is an useless option we put on the parking lights and signalled the vehicles so that they do not come straight and hit the car that remains right in the middle of the road. One gentleman stopped by and said that he will send the mechanic to fix the car. Tried stopping a couple of autos so that the two who were hurt could get some first aid. But they refused to stop by. It was pouring heavily now. After a bit of a struggled one gentleman(Really Hats off to you sir and my sincere thanks to you) in a maruthi stopped by and offered to drop them in the near by Hospital.

Then then next task was to get the car to the nearby garrage. Had told Martin not to worry as I assured to care of the car. To make things worse the power in that area went off. Now it was pitch black and I could see only the headlights. Many vehicles slowed down seeing my signal and were taking the left end of the road to avoid collision. But a few cracks made me mad when they tried to go around the car(It was not possible as the car was parked on the divider). Wont they have any sense. Cant they understand when someone stands in the middle of the road in lashing rain and gives some signal, it will be only to help them.

After some time the mechanic had arrived and quickly concluded that the car cant be moved as the engine was hit in the impact and the only option is to tow the vehicle. Now all three of us were standing in the road and were trying to get some vehicle to tow the vehicle. Witnessed couple of sparkling lightning like never before. Did not have much option but to close my eyes and stand still after each lightning as the Thunder almost made me shiver(I know I should have closed my eyes at the lightning but as per my Physics master light travels faster than sound. If he had thought me the other way then I could take hint at the Thunder and close my eyes avoiding the Lightning, which almost makes me feel as if Im going blind).

We called up the person who had sent for the Mechanic and he agreed to tow the vehicle and said he will be there in 30 minutes. By then Martin and Anbu called up and said that the injuries were not severe. After standing there for almost 2 hours we managed to take the car to the nearby mechanic shop.
It was a close shave( probably Mach3) and Thank God that Im still alive. Probably next October I should take a vacation and stay out of Chennai ;-)

(I sincerely thank and pray for all the souls who helped us out and offered to help us on that night.)