I leave for office just before 3 PM every day. These are unnaturally hot days, a harbinger of what is to come. Global Warming, perhaps. Anyway, yesterday I wrapped my windcheater around me, put on my gloves and slid on the helmet in preparation for the ride, as usual. I mounted my bike and saw the dust resting on the newly-fitted leg-guard. You can’t clean up every day. So I dragged it out of the parking lot and hit the starter. The engine came to life. It’s a familiar feeling this, if you drive every day. You are so accustomed to driving the bike through the roads of Pune - which resemble more a slalom track than a smooth highway - that you can’t help your mind wandering. No sir, that won’t do, so I tell myself to concentrate. These predated days of summer are dreadful for bikers. The hot wind will certainly cause you a cold - what with the air-conditioned office awaiting - if not a sunstroke unless you cover up. But that is not all. The good citizens of this city await you in the form of the gates of the slalom course. And quite often, the gates move. It is with good reason that one should concentrate. But there are instances where even that just doesn’t do: let me tell you more.
As my bike scythed through the inflammable atmosphere, my eyes darted around intently, on the lookout for potential dangers. The road seemed quite empty for the time. I was quarter of the distance through to the office and was going at 50 KMPH or so. There was this one guy loitering around at the left corner of the road, about 20 feet ahead of me when I noticed him. Suddenly, he decides to take a stroll down the park. Now, this is not a one-way street. If you want to cross from left to right, that is your right. But shouldn’t you watch what’s coming from your near end first rather than turning your head to the other side of the road? This guy obviously did not think so. He was so focused on the traffic from the other side as he fulfilled our date with each other that he wouldn’t hear my frantic horn. Well, 5 feet away from him, I knew we were destined to have our hasty rendezvous. Only, the how of it was in my hands. Go hard on the throttle and he crashes into your side. You are sent into a deadly spin. So that is not an option. To tell you a bit about physics though, a bike going at 50 will not stop within 20 feet even if you apply the rear and front brakes in perfect synchronization. But you do reduce the impact by slowing down and losing momentum. Realizing all this, I must have started braking a little after I saw him. So I brace myself while this guy, apparently unmindful of this aspect of the world, walks on blithely. As I near him, I reflexively turn the handlebar left ever so slightly to avoid, well, breaking his knee perhaps. He collides with the right side of my front wheel and the right leg-guard. The rear view mirror is almost dislodged. The bike still has momentum and the engine is revving. In a blur, my left foot is on the ground as I become the jockey trying to rein in this unruly horse. Fortunately, I can bring it to a stop without falling. Then I look around in the daze characteristic of the aftermath of a road accident. I saw it coming, but it still knocks the wind out of me for 2-3 seconds. Then I see that the dunce is on his feet and there’s no lasting damage to him. I survey myself and see that the corner of the left sock I’m wearing under my floaters has been ripped off. There is a little bleeding at the end of the toenail. But that apart, I’m ok. My bike too has survived, only that rear-view mirror needs to be fixed. I want to check on that fool, but he has staggered away, probably aware of his blunder. I just stare at the people around stupidly for a few seconds. If one believed in God, he would perhaps have said a silent prayer. But what else now for me but to shake my head, curse and complete the journey. I have gone through what I have only heard of. Riding on the slalom track will never be the same again.
I sometimes have this debate with my friends about which city has the worst traffic and road sense. Inevitably, Pune is among the top in this list. People break signals and rules for fun here. It is probably the dizzy change the city has undergone in the last few years. Many of the migrants are unaware of how to live in a city. And the old guard takes everything for granted, given the lax enforcement. But I will never know which of these that guy was.
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