THE UNTIMELY FLIGHT

THE UNTIMELY FLIGHT

By Joshua Cherian Varughese

The flight I was to take on the 25^th July 2012 was scheduled to depart at 00:15 but it took me by surprise when it came more than ten hours earlier.  Being from a low context culture flights, trains or buses getting late was never a novelty for me but flights coming early was certainly surprising. More surprisingly, I did not miss the flight!! 

The flight reached at 1:10pm on the 24^th July 2012.

But there were discrepancies .The flight was supposed to take me from Trivandrum to Singapore took me only ten feet away from where I was at 1:09 pm 59 seconds. The flight was to take about 4 and half hours but it took just 2-3 seconds. The flight I booked with my hard earned money was supposed to take me to the education that I had dreamed of for years; but this flight that I never booked nor ever wanted to take gave me instant and exciting education regarding some things I could never dream of learning otherwise -  you know what I learned? I learned to thank God and secondly, I learned to respect my A-S-S and realized it could be a life saver occasionally.

Getting less mystical and figurative about the flight that came like a juggernaut - It was while I was just about to pass a traffic light on my Honda Activa that it turned red and I braked like a good citizen. Two to three seconds later I heard a bang from behind and before I could think of anything at all I was “FLYING”. It lasted for only two to three seconds but I saw and thought a lot of things – I saw that my legs were stretched forward like those long jumpers in Olympics, I saw people running towards me, I saw a horde of cars and bikes in the opposite lane glaring at me with eager eyes and a “slurping” tongues to run me over in the next few fractions of a seconds. Well, that must be a lot to see in those three seconds but that was not all. I thought while flying, “The vehicle (which by no way could be a light vehicle) must have hit my scooter at about 60-70kmph. If it had not braked completely before I landed I would make squash under its tyres in the next second. Should I wait for another hit that would take me to eternity?” As soon as I landed(thankfully I landed on my ass and helmet was intact), I gathered all strength that had ever been stored in my worn-away-athlete body and turned back as if to face the “bull” that attacked me from behind. Standing there was a bolero pick up, it wasn’t raging towards me.

People thronged around to ask me if I was okay. Someone asked me if I wanted to go to a hospital but I said that I felt okay except for the numerous minor bloody wounds on various parts of my body. I stretched my legs, hands and neck to see if I had pain but I was okay except for a shooting pain in my ass coz it had hit tarred road at around 40kmph(kinetic energy transferred leaving behind some to account for the crumpled scooter and the amount scooter moved and also considering my weight being smaller than that of the bolero..zyada techy ho gaya!!) and I knew the docs could not possibly help. Someone even said, “ The way you were falling, I thought you would die”. From the midst of the people came a “cinema style”-ish traffic police and asked to a Me who was bruised all over, “Abe traffic light pe kyun ruka. Chale jate”(Why did you stop at the traffic light? You should have kept on going”). And then he took his walkie talky and reported to the head quarters “ Two vehicles collided near Keltron both had violated traffic lights”. I smiled at him as I said to myself “Wow!! I’ve got only my God given ASS to thank for me surviving the untimely flight”.

Post script: Well, I did take my second flight later the next day - Ten hours later, though I had to pack in two hours instead of ten (thanks to my shove pack training at National Institute of Technology JAMSHEDPUR).

“And to GOD the Lord belong escapes from death”(Ps 68:20)