It was dark, and it was minutes after the rain has stopped. As I rode along a small stretch of road, I came up to a long sweeping bend. That’s what it looked like, anyway. And it was bigger than the tiny sharp ones I’d been encountering a while back. I realize now that the speed I took the corner at was too fast. I was at roughly 40kmph and increasing. Due to the speed I was traveling at, I had to take position near the inside of the white line in the middle of the road.

Then there was a lorry. In a split second, I was given a load of information at once; the lorry was over the white line and on my side of the road. The corner had suddenly dipped down and banked away sharply to the right. It wasn’t the long sweeping bend I thought it was. I had to straighten up, I had to avoid the lorry that I was going to ram into any second.

I threw the bike upwards from its leaning position, fingers tugging almost cautiously on the front disc brake. Even in this panic, I felt the front wheel skid under my harsh braking and I let go of the brake. I knew, even in these brief moments and amongst the faint panic, that there was no point in braking. I couldn’t stop. I was going to hit the wall on the left side of the road. The corner had narrowed immensely at the heart of the bend. So I didn’t brake. I didn’t want to lock up the front wheel and go sliding. I was moments away from the point of no return. I touched the back brakes with my shoes, I felt it slowing the speed and getting grip. I don’t remember shifting my position. A second later, I was leaning the opposite way (bike was still in the same posture) and all I could see was blinding headlights of something big right behind me. I felt boxed in, and all of a sudden the light disappeared. I only heard my right mirror hit something big and heavy on my right.

I was now on the Lorry’s left side still turning right. It had blocked my view of the vehicle behind me as it hit my right mirror. I could sense the closeness of the wall on the left and the metal body of the lorry on my right. I was slowing down and the Lorry driver wasn’t. Thats when I knew he didn’t even notice me yet.  I knew I was getting boxed in.  I hit my back breaks hard, and slightly pulled in the front disc lever - I could feel my bike skidding, but I had stop. My tyres kept drawing S’s on the road. Then, the Lorry went past, he must have shifted gears since the road was straightening up. I skidded to a halt barely centimeters from the wall.. The Car that was behind me came to a halt with its bumpers nearly missing me, on my right. I paused in my cussing, whirling round to find the driver of the car that nearly hit me, It was a  lady. Her eyes were wide open as if she saw someone die.

I glanced up and noticed a line of cars behind her parked car.  She asked only one thing “What were you thinking?” - I suppose in the heat of the moment, the amount of anger and adrenaline I was filled with, all she did was infuriate me even more. I’m not typing in what I had called the lady. Surely, I wouldn’t want to hear it myself. Bike was still on, I put a gear down and took off—

But She was right, I had alot on my mind. As I recall now, I was worried and thinking of many problems that I had to deal with in life. Riding my bike, for me, was an escape from my day’s worries. As the wind flows across my face, I forget everything. But today, my worries, my anger and everything took the best of me.

As I was riding back home, to the safety of my room - I was feeling dirty. I couldn’t believe I put myself in such a situation after riding all these years. All my experiences felt as if it all went up in a wheelie. I started to doubt myself each turn I took and each gear I shifted. I was feeling less confident as each second passed…

–X–

These two are my bikes. A yellow and Silver Karizma. The yellow was bought 2months ago by sis. And silver is a new one, I bought it only 4 days ago. Yellow is called phoenix, I haven’t thought of a name for the Silver one yet. Well, they are both 225CC and 17bhp. They are the best bikes on Indian roads. I had planned to write lots of blogs about the last few months. I never had the time for it. And a close call wasn’t exactly the time to Introduce you all my steeds. Anyway now that you met them, have a look at more photos on my Orkut Album.

Today was a very unlucky day that I had to put it in writing (Other than the close call, It was like living the movie Final Destination. I think woke on the wrong side of the bed). Now that I broke the surface, I’ll soon blog about an Off-roading trip I had 2 months back in Kerala, and Trekking/Biking trip in the outskirts of Bangalore last month.

Ride safe everyone.

Ruben is really bored. So you can email him by clicking here. He usually gets back in 3 minutes or it could take up to 3 weeks depending on how addicted he is, to stumbleupon.  Been a little busy for a while, so I'm averaging about a blog every 2 moon cycles. If you are lucky, you'll get to see a new blog entry and know what I'm upto. And when you are here, just let me know by leaving a comment.