HERO vs ZERO

Sometimes............aha!

No “sometimes” this time...

Let’s start with “some other time”.

The repetition of sometimes

Has happened many a times.

Ok let us start with a multiple bang... Do not panic... It’s my bird yaar which is roaring... Yeah yeah, I know what  do you want to ask... Roaring....bird?

It is my bird, man! Which always roar whenever I fly...!

Ok now enough with the appetizers and let us come to the main course,

These are not just stories, these are a series of incidents, very simple, and light incidents but these affect deep down my conscience that scratch my ethics and the sense of responsibility, layer by layer...

It started with a drive, when I was driving on the roads of Jharsuguda.

Well before we proceed any further, let me first explain about the road map of Jharsuguda...

Jharsuguda basically divided into five parts

1. BOMBAY SQUARE where I live.

2. Beheramal where my company's office is.

3. BUS stand.

4. Mangal Bazaar.

5. Sarbahal.

 You can check these out through Google maps

So all my city or town or emerging metropolitan (as local people used to say) is mainly consisting of these five points which are somewhat collinear not as per definition but they are just on a maiden road.

You can start from point no. 1 and to reach point no. 5, you have to pass through all the other three points while driving through city. Otherwise you can choose the bypass or state highway 10 too.

From Bombay Square to bus stand, it is a 3km stretch on national highway 200.

 It is my pleasure to live in such a great place where the national highway is a road of breakers. It can be easily said that the number of breakers in that stretch is higher than the number of breakers in rest of the highway outside the town.

However Jharsuguda is renowned for its speed arrester. From Beheramal to my company, round about 55-speed arresters are there to prevent the drag race between different heavy and light vehicles.I never understand what the hell, municipality or whomsoever concerned, is thinking of it. However, lots of arresters are still in under construction.

These are for decreasing the rate of accident by keeping the vehicles at a slow speed but numerous no. of accidents have already been registered because of the mental illness of municipality and those damn breakers.

Apart from breakers, there are many more interesting facts about Jharsuguda road. From cobblers to vegetable markets to banks to mega marts, any kind of commercial or business sort of thing, are on the same Jharsuguda road. Whatever thing is available in the town, a whole lot is on the road. Jharsuguda’s exploration starts from Sarbahal road and ends up on Bombay Square point.

Moreover, with a great heart, I am keeping each & every encroachment in my liberal mind. I can say that the road is all about two lanes or three lanes, with one and half lane each side. This broad lane shares from bicycle to truck on the same road. One can easily get a view of excellent maneuvering in taking a lead by a lorry from a safari or vice versa in the same road including the encroachments.

Ok let us come to the point.

I will share my three experiences that happened in last week,

First incident:

I was riding in Jharsuguda road with my bird. Road was crowded as usual. With very skillful and hard maneuvering, I was making a passage to pass on. From the opposite direction two children of the age group 7 to 10 yrs were coming. They were playing with each other. All of a sudden the elder one hit the younger one real hard. Younger one lost his balance and fell down on the road. Unfortunately, he fell down just in front of my bike when I was around 20 meters away. I applied both the rear and front breaks as fast as I could. My reflex was so impulsive that when my bike stopped, he was just under my bikel with his neck exactly fixed on my front tyre. It was just a matter of few seconds that would have created the difference from life to death.

Everyone standing out there was stunned, dumbstruck. No words were spoken out for a minute. I was thinking that I will be finished. Public always liked this kind of situation. This was the only chance for them to showcase their rage which was being accumulated for a long time, without any hope of heal. Rage for not having any fun in their life. Rage for being unhappy for any reason. Someone is unhappy because he do not have good job. Someone was unhappy because of family problems. Someone for not having proper lifestyle, someone was sick, someone was poor. They were all frustrated with their livelihood. They wanted to take it out to on anything. I would definitely be their prey once my bike crossed that fallen child, but still the situation was very sensitive. Suddenly a foreigner standing over there started clapping and very soon, others have joined him.

I was the HERO there.

Second incident:

I was riding my same bird in Puri (430km from Jharsuguda). We were on an overnight tour from Jharsuguda to Puri. We had started our journey from Jharsuguda at 1930 hrs and for the whole night, we had been driving around. Next day at 1000 hrs, we were so tired to drive ahead. And it was barely 10 km left to reach our destination point. With lots of hardship we were about to reach there. But to enter Puri we had to pass through a village which was having a road which was lesser than a normal lane. I was driving behind a Bolero. Suddenly the Bolero raised its speed and took a sharp cut. We were driving at a normal speed but unexpectedly a bike jumped in from the front and collided with my right side. My right leg was almost crushed but by all grace of my steel crash guard, my leg was not even graced by a single scratch but my break gave out. On the other side, the collided bike had a couple and a child. They fell down because of the driver who got out of balance. Few scratches and lots of cry as a result were coming out. In no time, the local public surrounded us. In addition, every kind of cursive language was heavenly poured on us. Before we took any step, the crowd came on action already. I was wearing my helmet and the pattering sound was heard. It was their hand which continuously slammed my helmet. Again, by the grace of my helmet, that pattering sound was unable to be converted into slaps. Therefore, for the first time I had come to know of one more advantage of wearing a helmet especially in a crowded place such as a city.

This time I was the ZERO there.

Before I start the third incident....

Many things left those should be consolidated or compiled

Until now, I have described you the story about a zero and a hero...

In both the cases there were no casualties, that is why I am capable to write this just after three days.

From my side if I give a thought on these, the only possible way I can imagine is that in both the cases I was safe.

What if opposite had happened?

What if that boy was crushed by my front wheel?

What if that family got severely injured or any other fatal thing had happened?

Who will return them back? Who will pay those back?

In that case, whether the sole responsibility was on me or would the circumstances would take part?

Every accident that occurs on the road is necessarily someone's false effort, but it doesn't mean that the same guy will pay the price for it. A true roadie or the rider or driver is the one who avoids the consequence of that mistake whether he is responsible or not. It only happens when we stop blaming others and take attentive care of ourselves and all the cautions and possibilities those are coming on the way.

Once gone, that will never be come back. Our recklessness will cause someone’s life more dreaded than hell.

Because here, when one is born, he comes in as an individual only; but, when he dies, he takes many more lives with him.

Ok. So not wasting any more time let’s start with the third and the last story.

Third Incident:

  I was walking around in South City Mall in Kolkata for shopping on the day of Valentine,

Mall was decorated with all red and hearts. Each floor was venturing the roaming couples with full romantic mood, though it was Monday (not holiday), still the mall was fully loaded. What to say?......” love is beyond dates and days”.

I entered into a Pentaloon store bought a watch as a Valentine gift to me, by me and went to pay in counter . I saw a Cashier talking to a boy who could not have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
The Cashier said, 'I'm sorry, but you don't have enough money to buy this doll.

Then the little boy turned to me and asked: ''Uncle, are you sure I don't have enough money?''

I counted his cash and replied: ''You know that you don't have enough money to buy the doll, my dear.'' The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.
Finally, I walked towards him and asked him to whom he wished to give this doll to?

 “It's the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so much. I want to gift her for her BIRTHDAY.”
“I have to give the doll to my mom so that she can give it to my sister when she goes there.” His eyes were so sad while saying this.
“My Sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says that Mom is going to see God very soon too, so I thought that she could take the doll with her to give it to my sister...''
My heart nearly stopped.

The little boy looked up at me and said: “I told daddy to tell mom not to go yet. I needed her to wait until I come back from the mall.”

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was laughing. He then told me “I want mom to take my picture with her so that my sister won't forget me. I love my mom and I wish she doesn't have to leave me, but daddy says that she has to go to be with my little sister.” Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly...
I quickly reached for my wallet and said to the boy. “Suppose we check again, just in case you do have enough money for the doll?''
“OK” he said, “I hope I do have enough.” I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we started to count it. There was enough for the doll and even some spare money.
The little boy said: “Thank you God for giving me enough money!”
Then he looked at me and added, “I asked last night before I went to sleep for God to make sure I had enough money to buy this doll, so that mommy could give it to my sister. He heard me!''

“I also wanted to have enough money to buy a white rose for my mommy, but I didn't dare to ask God for too much. However, He gave me enough to buy the doll and a white rose. My mommy loves white roses.”
I finished my shopping in a very different state from what I had started. I could not get the little boy out of my mind.

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, in the morning, I was snoozing on the bed; gigantic grandpa wall clock had hammered seven bells on continuation. Pop was sitting in the Veranda, was looking so serious in some matter, discussing with his friend. After a few moments mom brought a cup of tea with my favorite dog biscuits (Parle G).

‘‘Why Baba is so serious, what happened?” I asked to mom

Mom was so worried and angry too: ”that’s all because of you''

‘‘Why are you doing like this?''

‘‘Now, what have I done?”, I asked in surprise,Mom astonished me.

''You and your bike, do you ever think of that, how worried we are about you since from the day, you have bought that damn bike?”

Mom’s irrelevant worry made me fuzz and I left the tea in the bed and directly went to the Verandah, asked pop directly.

He handed over me the newspaper, which was two days old and directed towards a particular article.

It was about the bike accident happened two days before, who hit a car occupied by a young woman and a little girl. Biker had taken a very sharp cut in saving himself. Car got overturned as it had lost its balance.  The little girl died right away, and the mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether to pull the plug on the life-sustaining machine, because the young woman would not be able to recover from the coma.

After then pop showed me the latest newspaper with the relevant article of the same accident

The young woman had passed away.

Picture was clear to me not only from my parent’s side but also about the encounter with the boy. I could not stop myself as I bought a bunch of white roses and I went to the funeral home where the body of the young woman was exposed for people to see and make last wishes before her burial. She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed over her chest. I left the place, feeling that my life had been changed forever...
The love that the little boy had for his mother and his sister is still, to this day, hard to imagine.

And in a fraction of a second, a crazy biker had taken all this away from him.


Now, it has been more than 1.5 years since I started riding bikes and trips .I am close to 20,000 kilometers on odo by now. But I have never been more scared on the road than I am today. Though scared is a wrong word to use here, but every time I am back from a motorcycling trip, by seeing others and sometimes with my own mistakes, I discover an ever increasing number of possibilities of killing over selves on the road with just one wrong move