stack/hopr

This happened last evening.

Me and my friend, I call him LSP, were riding on a bike. He was driving. We were headed for inner parts of the city to do some emergency shopping. LSP is a smooth rider. He’s always calm and cool. I’m generally not very comfortable traveling on 2 wheelers, but since it was LSP I had agreed. Just before we started LSP and I had a brief discussion about how the pillion rider on his bike should stabilize himself. I told him that I generally I hold on to something, like bike’s tail. LSP was in disagreement. He said, since it was his bike and he was the driver, I should not hold onto anything, just rest my hands on my knees and relax. So, I relaxed.

Out from our peaceful residential area, we were entering the heavy traffic roads of the city. Fortunately the weather was nice. So, both of us were generally in a good mood. LSP was riding to his heart as usual. Overtaking vehicle after vehicle, swirling around cars and other bikes. He was in control of the vehicle. I kept my hands on my knees, without having any special urge to hold onto something.

We were approaching a traffic light. It is a confusing merge of 5 roads. Confusing, because 5 roads come together at different angles here. Three roads merge at an angle of 30-40 degrees to each other. One roads passes straight through, and another road comes in at right angle from the opposite side. The situation is complicated by a three branch flyover passing from above this junction. I had negotiated this place before, from all angles and under different traffic conditions. LSP has been driving around this place for years.

I wasn’t paying special attention to signal color or the traffic in general. It was not my job at the time. A billboard to the side of the road had caught my eye. So, I was thinking about it. I didn’t know LSP was doing some deep thinking himself. A white Ford Fiesta was right ahead of us, about 20 feet from us. We were traveling at around 40kmph. LSP was a sharp negotiator of vehicles. We were getting close to the car, both of us never noticed that the car had suddenly become stationary, its brake lights turned on. We were still traveling at 40kmph. The distance between the car and us was vanishing. We were merely 3 feet away from car, and LSP realized we were not going to make the curve around the car. He braked hard. It was too late.

We rammed into the car’s rear. A loud clicking noise of bikes front mud-guard crushing into pieces. I was already in the air, not really sure what was happening. But sure of one thing, I had zero control over my body, my mind and my life at that instant. The time seemed to have slowed to a 1000 times than normal. Mid-air, I noticed, LSP holding onto the handle of the bike, being pushed ahead onto the petrol tank. He was frantically and almost without conscious thought trying to control his bike. Then, I saw the white boot of the car. I was going to land on it. My only hope was not to land head first. Both of us were without helmets. My hand moved forward and pushed my body away from the car. My left leg scratched against the ground. I rotated around LSP, looking directly into his eyes. I saw the same feeling of helplessness and shock in his eyes. In that moment, I also tried to assess how much damage LSP was going to have and if I could help him in some way. It looked like he was about to stabilize. I kept rotating. My right hand was now stretched far along to balance my body. And I regained balance, I stood up. I was standing just behind the car and beside the point where the bike had hit the car. The bike was still engaged with the rear of the car. LSP was in upright position himself, holding onto the bike.

The rest of the world drowned out. I could only think of me, LSP, the car and the bike. The traffic, the people around us were lost. Me and LSP just stood there looking at each other, not believing what had happened. Both trying hard to get out of shock and both happy that we were unscathed. It was an unusual feeling. It was like I was 100% alive in that moment. Like Tyler Durden says after the self staged car crash in the movie Fight Club: “it was a near life experience”.