Survival

The bright headlights reflecting sharply from the wet windshield blinded me for a moment.In the next moment when I opened the eyes,another car was rushing in from opposite side,suddenly skidded and came towards mine.I applied brakes more in a shock than in reflex.

The rear tyres screeched & skidded badly.The car travelled a lateral distance in high speed,bumped on two huge stray water-filled potholes and rolled once before coming to a sudden hault. Bang !!

It was all silence for a while.I dint know where I was.A strange feeling of numbness occupied me.It took few minutes for me to register what have just happened.A fear suddenly cripped in me very slowly.It was raining heavily now.The rain thrashed on the car.

My state of numb was broken by bright rays of stray light from the high speed vehicles rushing on the highway.The rolling sound of heavy tyres seemed to rattle my ribs...
The state of shock started to sink in and the fear started to grow thinking what I had just gone through.It seemed like I started to become aware of my surroundings with time.But it was worse when the actual fact hit me.

I was about to die.Yes,Death was right there for me.I was blank all through.My body was shivering badly,my mind gave up thinking and I was feeling cold.My head dropped on the steering wheel.I started crying like a child.

I never knew what death is.But that day sitting alone in that car in a dark
rainy night on a sideline highway ,I could figure out the difference between
life and death.It was just a fraction of second..may be a blink of eye between life and death.In a moment you are here and next you are left nowhere.In that strange moment of destiny,my whole life started reeling before of my eyes in pieces.Shards of memory that were hidden somewhere in my mind that I thought never existed,now became visisble .Sounds of my dad's laughter,my mom waving her hands at me from the church gate,the hissing sound of a cooker from the kitchen,the smell of my mom's old saree,my sisters mehendi hands,priya standin on the other side of a busy road,a slight of tense on her face,omar's bright lecherous eyes smiling,vague sounds of sid's voice,u4 sharing a dope,the smell of grass..and more and lot more.Lakhs of faces crowded over me in a moment and my ears were blasted by the random ramblings of thousand voices and laughter.I pressed my hands in my ears but they were of no use then. My pains never lessened..The tears refused to stop.

...

A loud bang from behind brought me out of the trance.Someone broke the front window glass to open the door lock.I was feeling cold and my eyes were too wet to see anything.Tears kept rolling down like the rainy night.

"Hey man,are you ok??" Someone wrapped a shawl around me and helped me out.
" Total nutjob buddy !! We were shouting for like an hour now!! We thought you were dead.."

They said I remained fainted in that dead car for almost an hour that nite .No one knew how I was alive.