Tuesday, June 10, 2008

FEEEEELING THE WEIGHTLESSNESS........


Well….this post is completely dedicated to an incident that happened to me…I made a reference to it in my first post as well… It is not some film star in a typical Indian movie performing it. But an ordinary human like me facing it. It might appear as you read along that I added some extra spice to this spicy tale, but trust me every bit of it is true…

It was 26th august, 2007 (Sunday). At around 8am I had a call from home and hence I had to wake up. Huh! Even a Sunday was not spared. I was forced to go for breakfast… I walked hastily for breakfast with two of my friends. I really did not want to go. The sun was gazing high when we hastily walked to The Himalaya (the mess). In about five minutes we were at this building. Nice hot rava dosas on Sunday.

The Himalaya is a beautiful building. It is a three-storeyed building and we had to go to the second floor every day. It has an awesome look from outside (not so much inside though :P). It has nice shiny glasses that enhance its beauty. The floor is sparkling red granite and almost as clean as you can get. The staircase has nice beautiful railings. The top of it is made up of rounded steel which is really smooth and nice to hold on (this I would call the CULPRIT).

It was about 9:15 am when we started getting back to hostel. The railing for the stairs was really smooth and very tempting. I don’t know what came to my mind then; I sat on this railing and began sliding down. Wheeeeee!!! I went down till the first bend. At this end of the bend I felt I the first sign of the danger, I tripped a bit. Relentlessly, I sat back again. In the middle I felt a strange force pulling me back. I rotated with the railing as fulcrum. My hands were holding the rounded railing. But I could not hold on once I rotated beyond a certain angle. I felt a hand that held my leg for a brief period (I was achuth aka IPS’ hand). In about less than a second, I was on the ground floor. I was in an unconscious state for a brief period. When I got back my senses I was surrounded by a cloud of people.

About thirty anxious heads gazing at me while I lay on the smooth granite floor. My first feeling after I regained my consciousness was “Am I alive???” I pinched myself for a confirmation. Haa! It was a great feeling. It was a sigh of relief. “I am still alive…” the ambulance came in few minutes. About six people lifted me up into the ambulance. I had few questions asking myself continuously at this juncture.

“Will I be normal again???”

“Will I be able to walk again???”

“Will I be able to play again???”

And so on…

The ambulance rushed to the insti hospital (my first visit). Different parts of body were paining. My back, my left ankle, my right hip, the lower portion of my stomach, all these parts were paining at the same time (:-P) and I had a swelling on my head (hematoma as they call it). After few general things that they do, like checking your ear, setting up something for glucose (my left hand was pierced at three different places with a needle…ouch!!!. I was taken out for a CT scan and few other scans. One such scan (ultra violet…something I don’t remember it exactly) required my stomach to be filled completely filled with water, that is you must be just about to urinate. I drank nearly 2 LITRES of water, but was in no mood to urinate. This is ridiculous!!! Everybody was waiting for me and I was waiting for natures call. Fed up of the wait, I told that the golden moment arrived (:-P). The scan was done and I went to the toilet. It was not easy to walk then. My left leg could not take any pressure, but had to manage.

All the scans were done and all x rays taken. I don’t have words to describe the feeling I had when I was told that I don’t have any major injury (no fracture and no…..). I had a small bit of vomiting, the same night so had to go to another hospital outside. The doctor there played it down. He was a cool guy and said it is a normal happening. I was back to the hospital where I was greeted by many anxious faces in the form of MY MOTHER and few friends. I must thank these people. They were really helpful during my stay. We had a brief farting session before I crashed at around 10 30pm. Ooh!!! It was nice cool air conditioned single room with attached bathroom. The funny thing is that the bathroom had no bolt from inside (probably they have a reason for it).

During my stay I was attended by 4 doctors( 3 female and 1 male if I am right..:P). It was a torrid time at the hospital, absolutely no work to do, no people to talk to, absolutely lone in the midst of the desert. I don’t think I need to explain how it would be in a hospital. Finally on Tuesday at 2pm I was declared fit to leave for hostel. Call it God’s grace or sheer luck but I am safe.

Now I stand here with a sense of amazement in myself. I became really famous in the institute within a span of few days. Everyone became tongue tied when they hear about this incident. It earned me a name (nick rather…) “CR2RR”. That monthly edition of filter copy had a separate section dedicated ONLY for my incident (though they added some masala to make it spicier…). My only regret was that I could not be a part of the “freshie tournament”. It leaves a smile on my face whenever I pass into mess that I survived a free fall about 25feet with only a leg sprain and a few minor injuries.

Phew!!! Its all over now AND BEFORE I LEAVE 25TH AUGUST IS MY BIRTHDAY. No one would have expected that I would have got such a scary gift.That was a real scary fall. Scary to hear, scarier to watch and the scariest to face it….