In support of an Auto

Wiki defines an auto thus, An auto rickshaw or three-wheelers (tuk-tuk, auto, rick, autorick or rickshaw in popular parlance) is a motor vehicle that is one of the chief modes of transport across many parts of South and East Asia, especially as a vehicle for hire. It is a motorized version of the traditional rickshaw or velotaxi, a small three-wheeled cart driven by a person, and is related to the cabin cycle.

I came back from Mumbai en-route Pune last week and met with an accident. I wanted to show it pictorially using some software, but I will let that feeling pass. The auto ended up ramming a car whose motion was perpendicular to the auto. As with all accidents, this one also took just a moment's misjudgment from the car driver who grandly underestimated the jest with which auto wallahs are used to driving on roads, here in Bangalore. Just as the car driver took a turn, it was clear to both the driver and me that a crash was inevitable.

What we usually appreciate with the Volvo buses on roads are the comfort and the speed. But the best part about them is they are safe because they have one of the best braking system on board. These days bikes also come with disc braking which makes today's generation x more adventurous and the others on the road more shaky.

The auto wallah needs to be given credit for the fact that he did not panic, he timed the accident perfectly. He should also be given a stick because of the over speeding. On a moment's whim he could have slammed the front brakes and the auto might have overturned and all hell would have broken loose. The maruni omni, has this problem of overturning also. Once I saw it skid on a road and barely avoid turning over.

So the dude that our auto wallah is, he slammed the back brakes and made an oblique crash with the car. The good thing again with an oblique crash was that we skidded on the car surface rather than suddenly being brought to rest. I hope you have studied momentum somewhere. If not, mv = constant. I hope.

So we crashed with the car and fell on one side on the road. All it took was barely two seconds. Finally what i like about the auto is that it was so easy to walk out of the crash, coz it is a very open vehicle. Had it been a car, the doors might have locked, and like some English movie, there would have been a fear of the wreckage becoming a bomb in itself. One moment we are down on the road, the next moment, people have turned the auto back in its normal position.

The people around were helpful. They wanted to turn back the auto right away, but then realized that I was inside, and in a bit of a zonked out state. I was just sitting inside the wreck, in what could have been a lot more dangerous.

So I support an auto, in a crash.

It's been more than a week and half, but there is a small niggle at two places in my leg, which is avoiding me to walk long distance or generally go out and get work done.

I need to pay the cell phone bill. Need to go to ICFAI. The laptop screen has turned into a flickering mode, so this Acer might again have to go to the service center. I might have to buy a desktop for an employee.

All these are part and parcels of everything going wrong at the same time, which I am fine with. My only concern is, when the niggling go will. And since it is at two places there is a good enough chance that, it will go from one place only and then again keep swapping the point of pain.

From Scott Fitzgerald, The curious case of Benjamin Button. (That reminds me, I still need to find the great gatsby and read it )Benjamin Button: Sometimes we're on a collision course, and we just don't know it. Whether it's by accident or by design, there's not a thing we can do about it. A woman in Paris was on her way to go shopping, but she had forgotten her coat - went back to get it. When she had gotten her coat, the phone had rung, so she'd stopped to answer it; talked for a couple of minutes. While the woman was on the phone, Daisy was rehearsing for a performance at the Paris Opera House. And while she was rehearsing, the woman, off the phone now, had gone outside to get a taxi. Now a taxi driver had dropped off a fare earlier and had stopped to get a cup of coffee. And all the while, Daisy was rehearsing. And this cab driver, who dropped off the earlier fare; who'd stopped to get the cup of coffee, had picked up the lady who was going to shopping, and had missed getting an earlier cab. The taxi had to stop for a man crossing the street, who had left for work five minutes later than he normally did, because he forgot to set off his alarm. While that man, late for work, was crossing the street, Daisy had finished rehearsing, and was taking a shower. And while Daisy was showering, the taxi was waiting outside a boutique for the woman to pick up a package, which hadn't been wrapped yet, because the girl who was supposed to wrap it had broken up with her boyfriend the night before, and forgot.

When the package was wrapped, the woman, who was back in the cab, was blocked by a delivery truck, all the while Daisy was getting dressed. The delivery truck pulled away and the taxi was able to move, while Daisy, the last to be dressed, waited for one of her friends, who had broken a shoelace. While the taxi was stopped, waiting for a traffic light, Daisy and her friend came out the back of the theater. And if only one thing had happened differently: if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by. But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control - that taxi did not go by, and that driver was momentarily distracted, and that taxi hit Daisy, and her leg was crushed.