I know... I know... many of you were wondering what 'senseless' status it was: I am not allowed through metal detectors n all that crap. If you didn't well n good... :) but if you did then read on.
A little preface... After I quit my job in Nov 2009, I bought a bike n some other stuff so I can enjoy a little. And trust me riding a bike was such bliss... it was real fun. Only good thing that was going on in my life was bike riding. So In Jan End there was this event, hosted by IIM-A: Chaos [annual inter-college cultural festival as per their site http://www.iima-chaos.com]. Now I am not a big fan of chaos it's just a fun event but some of my friends were keen about it and I had nothing to do during those days so I thought let me give it a shot. So I attended 2-3 nights in Chaos and 'cause of that I had to miss few classes where I learn Guitar. Now, I was attending a guitar class in Ahemdabad and I live in Gandhinagar so was used to take my bike to reach there every morning. Also there was some restructuring work being done on the road I used daily, so on 1st Feb I thought I will take a different route from within the sector I live.
So I was going on a different route and on a different time, now I had this bad habit to put my mp3 player on a REAL loud volume level n ride my bike. All these came together n I was going real slow... n suddenly a school bus came from one of the streets. The road is so small I really didn't expect a school bus there. And I panicked n hit the front brakes 'cause I was hardly going on 20 KMPH I thought it'd be okay... but unfortunately... it wasn't. So... the bike slipped... n somehow I ended up with all my weight on my left hand so it broke both the bones. Fortunately... it was a blunt hit so no crush injuries n nothing else. Just both the bones were broken from mid forearm. I was very close to my place so a gentleman dropped me at my place [Nothing happened to the Bike: P]. And I was operated upon on the same day. They implanted a steel plate and a nail to support both the bones.
It didn’t pain a lot but my movements were restricted and I could see what the outcomes of this situation are. It scared the hell out of me ‘because possibilities were unlimited [Partial disability, permanent damage to joints, range/strength loss etc]. There was a time gap of 3 weeks for bones to complete the primary recovery. Before that it is bit difficult to predict the recovery. Anyways, everything went well as time passed by and finally around 3 weeks back they allowed me to type with both hands n also recovery is complete for both the bones.
I decided to keep many of you out of this, just ‘because I didn’t want anyone to pity me. I made sure that very few knew about this, ‘cause I had to talk to some of them to survive a difficult time. I am really thankful to all of you guys who knew n keep it to yourselves n helped me to pass by such a hard time. It means a lot to me and I will always be grateful.
Now I am allowed to drive a car and I’m taking really really painful Physiotherapy sessions every day. Hopefully things will be alright. :)
I’ve learnt few lessons out of this incident and I would like to put them here so maybe it might be helpful to someone
1. Avoid driving if you are not fit; if you are tired or sleepy there is a good chance your body might not act fast enough to avoid an accident.
2. If you are not familiar to the road, be extra cautious. Don’t assume.
3. If you are using disk brakes, make sure the road is clear or there is a good chance you will lose control.
4. Understand how braking works for your bike, for most hitting both the brakes at the same time is recommended.
5. Avoid using MP3 players/ Bluetooth headsets while riding.
6. If you are having metal implants in your body, ask your doctor to issue a simple medical certificate and carry it with you if you are travelling by air. It is not necessary, but it’s a good practice.
