A fraction of a second – that’s all it takes…

… to change your life that is. You can plan all you want, but it does really just take a second to unravel all those plans. I realized that today

For all those wondering why I am philosophical – I was in an accident today. I have been in accidents before, two actually. But I don’t remember a thing of what happened in those accidents, I heard about what happened from people. This one however was different. I remember every moment of those few seconds clearly, and it’s a memory which will stay with me forever. I have heard people say that when death passes you, what you see is a flashback of your life and all your loved ones flash in front of your eyes. Well nothing like that happened to me. Weirdly enough, I watched everything happen as if I were watching a movie. My first thought was that I was wearing a seatbelt, so I was safe even if the car toppled unless of course I got trapped and the car exploded (watching too many movies does that to you). The second thought was to hold on to my SLR so that it doesn’t get damaged (I guess I love it a little too much). Even after the car came back into control, the only thing on my mind was to get out of the mess. I even went sightseeing, shopping and picture clicking after dropping of the car. And if anyone sees the pictures that we have clicked after the episode, they would never guess that we were in a car crash just hours before that. I guess all of our reactions would have been different if anything would have happened to any one of us. Thank God that nothing did and it was just the car which bore the brunt of it all.

Learnt some stuff today:

Miracles do happen and fate is not a “concept” – it does exist: it was nothing short of a miracle and maybe our fate, that though the car was at a 120 km/ph and we hit the divider resulting in the car going completely out of control for about 3-4 kms, all five of us came out of it without a scratch. In the previous two, it was just me who bore the brunt and the others were unscathed. This time fate was on my side too!!

People do care – just don’t show it: A couple of Swedish colleagues are our 911. They always bail us out of trouble. Until today I thought they did it just to be nice to some crazy Indians. But the concern and care that I sensed in their voice today, took me by surprise and a pleasant one at that. I cannot explain in words, what a comfort it was to realize that far away from family and friends, people geniunely cared. It was comforting to say the least.

Nagging is good : Today was the first day I didn’t nag my friend while he was driving. People say I am a control freak, which is why I chew someone’s brains out if I don’t trust his/her driving (which is almost always). I guess it’s my way of being in control. But today, I let it go and let him drive the way he wanted. Seeing the result…hmmm… well I am going to revert being a nag. Nagging is better than getting injured or killed!!!

Should always be dressed for the weather: Now this one is for my friend (he knows, and hence am not mentioning names :-)). We were waiting outside for assistance to come in a -15 degree C for an hour. And though we froze our jackets came through for us. I am sure without them we would have died of hypothermia, okay that’s exaggerating it a bit, but am not far away from the truth. So my dear friend always carry warm clothing with you - like someone says, there is a thin line between courage and stupidity, why cross it??

Retail therapy doesn’t help: I shopped after we sorted out stuff. And shopped not for necessities but for things which were not needed. I told my self that it was my way of dealing with things. Well it doesn’t work, and things do catch up with you. My mom tells me that I always have delayed reaction to traumatic experiences, and its only after around 8 hrs have passed is this experience beginning to sink in and I am a nervous wreck. In short – what a waste of money!!

I guess I have had enough of learning that I can take for one day and am off to try and do something to put my hyperactive mind to rest. For all the people behind the wheels – be extra careful, coz it does take just a second….

Ps: this was my second attempt to visit the IKEA store in Happaranda. The first one was when we landed there on one of the 3 days in a year that IKEA is shut, and well the second one is all over my blog… I’m all the more determined to break the jinx now