The Longest Moment of My Life

I would like to apologize to everyone for disappearing and for not responding to your lovely comments. It’s very uncharacteristic of me for sure. I have good reason for it though- I have been a little caught up with the relocation work. And unfortunately, on my way to St. Louis, I met with a deadly accident…and almost got killed. I’m still recuperating from the after effects and have had absolutely no time to engage in blogging or to reply to your comments. Please forgive me for that. I will respond to your comments as I get time.

It’s surprising that some of the first people whom I told anything about the accident are my friends from WordPress- Ish and Shefaly. I thank everyone else who inquired about my well being too. I’m writing this post to answer everyone’s emails and questions at one go- it’s much easier for me to do this. I’m physically fit (except for some bruises), but I’ll take a long time to be fine mentally. I’ve only witnessed accidents as a observer. Being there, experiencing it, and not knowing where you’ll remain alive, is something that I wouldn’t want anyone to ever find out. Not even my worst enemy.

I had been packing round the clock since the past one week and was quite relieved when I finally drove on the highway, towards my new home. Nothing could go wrong. I made the mistake of getting my tires checked and inflated before driving on the highway and this might be a possible reason why my car tires blew up. All of a sudden, I lost control, and my car started swinging like a pendulum in the two lane highway. Before I could even think, I could see and smell fumes, the car skidded and hit the metal road barriers to my left, ripped through it and landed on the opposite side of the highway, where the traffic was flowing in the opposite direction. There were three 16 wheeler trucks, and I found myself praying to God, wishing that I come alive through this entire ordeal. I don’t know how the trucks managed to stop. But it’s a miracle that they did. What is even more surprising is that none of the cars on the highway hit my car, else I would have surely died. Everything possible (except for the boot of the car) broke. The door wouldn’t open. Somehow, I pulled myself out of the car with some guidance from my friend. Both of us were relieved that we were alive.

Those couple of seconds stretched for an eternity. I could feel as if everything was happening in slow motion and that I was living the final moments of my life. Perhaps my inner strength guided me to go on. Dying in a road accident is definitely not the kind of death that I wanted.

The Highway Patrol arrived within a minute or two. He wrote an accident report and pretty much told me on my face “It’s your problem”. I couldn’t care less about his rudeness. I was too worried about all my electronics. Yes, my electronics. The minute I found that me and my friend are safe, I made sure that we got our laptops, GPS navigator, cell phones, iPods, Cameras etc. out of the car.

A very kind lady called Christina stopped for us and literally baby sat us. She was driving on her way back home from work. Later, in the car, she told us that she never leaves this early from work (it was 8:30 pm at the time of the accident) and it was a co-incidence/miracle that she’d left so early. She was behind those 16 wheeler trucks when our car was skidding and was shocked when she saw the condition of our car. She told me, “I don’t know how you people are alive. Seeing your car…I never thought that the people inside would have survived. What is a miracle is the fact that you don’t even have a single scratch on your body! Perhaps God wanted me to take you back to your home safely…and that’s the reason he made me leave my office 30 minutes early”.

There was another thing that she said- “The only way to repay me is to pass on this deed of kindness to someone else during his/her time of need”. And I hope to do that for sure. I hope God gives me a chance to help someone.

It’s been more than 72 hours since I had that accident, but I still feel traumatized. The trauma has reduced for sure…yes. I get panic attacks when I start sweating, my stomach starts churning and my throat becomes dry. I guess everything will get better with time.

I’m in a new town…hardly know anyone…no car either. I have rented a car for now and hope to buy another one ASAP. I feel too scared to drive, even though it was not my fault.

I went to the junk yard yesterday to take out stuff from my wrecked car. I got everything back, and I’m happy about that. The car mechanic told me that only “one in twenty cars manage to break the metal barrier and land on the opposite side of the highway…and hardly anyone ever survives it”.

Having been there and seeing death so closely, I feel that this is my second life. I feel very fortunate and very happy that I’m still alive and am surrounded by people who love me.

Oh, and by the way, after the accident, I did think about the accident scene from Kryzstof Kieslowski’s movie, Blue. It was something like that. Very movie like.