Not much happens here these days, especially in a winter morning. The normal people are still in bed from the chill (or the excuse of it). As for many others it is the time we return home. Dressed in the same clothes as yesterday, had a cup of coffee at dhiru bhai unbrushed , I was heading home from hostel. The caffeine was working , the sun rays felt soft against the cool breeze and to top it off a rather buoyant track came up on shuffle play. With one fist pounding in rhythm on the speedometer a smile began to stretch across my face. These moments are rare, when you feel like you are on the edge of a major life epiphany, when your music impaired faculties take you beyond what is real. You see everything for what they truly are, lucid and plain. You blame time for being in abundance that we spend complicating things in and around us when in reality It's all a part of you; within reach. Acting like it's the elephant in the room won't help. Unless it blends of course :P.

As was apt; the non hippie “reality” chose this moment to slap me across the face. In the corner of my eye I see this man a little ahead to my left looking at the opposite end of the road with mighty intent. The determination on his face rose to a crescendo at the end of which he ran. Ran straight at me - I honked - Slowed down and tried to go behind him - He noticed me and panicked - Ran a step back to ensure i didn’t miss him. Not much i could do then. Full disks locked the wheels and next thing I know is I am skidding on the road dragging the bike behind me. It was all over in less than 2 seconds but every time i replay it in my mind looking for things i could have done to avert the incident, it seems longer. I wasn’t going fast and other than the head phones I was reasonably attentive. But then shit only doesn’t happen until it does.

I got off with a few minor cuts and scrapes but the one that hurt the most was that the visor of my motor bike had completely shattered. Much to my satisfaction the stupid man I hit was bleeding profusely (yes am a terrible selfish being with no humane empathy/sympathy). I refused to take him to the hospital and I was supported on the account that i myself was hurt. Tending to the cuts at home repeatedly filled me with white hot anger. I thought of the things that i would be missing out on because of this. We had our final intra sports tournaments coming up, the trip to springfest kharagpur, class picnic (eh ! well) and a few others.

In Bhubaneswar you can’t be certain that the empty stretch of road infront is actually so. Every now and then there will be stray dogs, cattle and people (sharing traits with dogs & cattle) right in the middle as if having materialised from a worm hole in space time. On the plus, i am extra cautious while driving and stopped listening to music unless am in the back seat*. I never was one who speeded in traffic ( always one who met with disappointment at having reached the destination sooner) owing to my lack of required skills and temperament . But given an empty road i would push 80 (even 100 once in a while). Some unmitigated hints by God are just marvellous and useless co-incidences, if the purpose of those hints is incomprehensible. Well we live in a world where Final destination could have happened. :/

*1 for three days.