A red and white christmas.. boom, bang, clank, grunt .. ok alive!!

“Dude I think we are leaving tyre tracks!”

“Fuck, punc..”

7.20am

The 500AVL slid to the right for half a second, as she lost speed from a steady 100kmph, in a futile last attempt to steady her I wrestled her to the left of the road and slammed the brakes. She lifted the front wheel a bit

“..ture”

and we hit the ground.

The crashguard landed first, my hands still on the handlebar. The massive enfield 500 with its enhanced 22 litre tank that held about 20 liters of petrol fell on its right.Then, it started to slide on the road on its side, carrying massive momentum with it. I felt an excruciating pain on my back as my thick cotton fabric belt took my weight. My left arm lost grip of the fallen bike which stopped sliding and my body slid about 2 meters ahead of where the bike stopped. The helmet slid off my face once I stopped moving. And as it left, dragged my pair of spectacles with it, I cud feel a burn on my left cheek.

I got up the moment I stopped moving. And looked out for @vishwasma who was pillion to me on his beloved 500. He was seated on the ground. His face had a few drops of blood and he was sitting upright on the road. I looked out for oncoming traffic and there was none. Vishwas got up on his feet.. First words came out of my mouth without any effort

“Dude how bad?”

“Quite”

“You are bleeding from your nose”

And I realized I was too. Relieved that we were both better off than we could have been after what just happened. Got on our feet and went about our business of dealing with crashed. crashes, which as experienced tourers, are trained to deal with..

I checked myself for damage. My face had a fancy cut on the left cheek. Almost looked good. (See where my focus lies) My jacket was torn on the right elbow. And as I took it off, my left shoulder hurt. I could see my right and left elbows had a few inches of skin missing and they were dripping blood. My jeans was torn at the right knee, and revealed another large wound dripping a few drops more blood than my elbows protected by my tough corduroys. (My leather riding jacket was in Delhi.. will talk about this further down) ..
The little finger on my right palm bled too, and the nail was scratched. I found my spectacles crashed on the ground near my metal belt buckle that had given up..My abdomen had scratches from the belt as i was dragged on the ground before the buckle gave away.

Vishwas was already cleaning his knee wound with water. His Cramsters had kept his upper body safe. I followed suit and cleaned up my wounds. Wiped off with cotton and applied antiseptic powder from our first aid box..

Then happened a six sigma operation as Vishwas says!

8.00 am

The bike is up on two wheels, the luggage is taken off. A transporter rickshaw stopped on the way and the bullet loaded.

8.20 am

The bullet arrives at Trissur railway station. The porters are the first to catch hold off in any such event, give them the money, the petrol in the tank, and the bike loads in no time.

8.45 am

Picked up a taxi from trissur station as Vishwas completes the formalities to send the bike back to bangalore

9.10 am

The bike is packed, payment made. The head porter paid and reminded to load it and that the petrol is a gift for them.

9.30 am

Luggage and us loaded in the taxi, and we head towards a hospital

9.45 am

Arrive at hospital, clean wounds, apply dressings, take X-Ray, walk around the hospital in my underwear paying bills and getting medicines. Get a go ahead

10.40 am

hit the road home like this

And that was what my christmas day was like in 2009!! Red and white!!

There are a few things that we learned (As usual) from this crash..

1. Safety gear is most important as we tour. My jacket was not a riding jacket, it would have saved more skin. The helmets did, though Vishwas was wearing my

2. Neither Vishwas nor I had a good feeling about this when we started. We are deep planners, and this was an unplanned trip. NEVER go unplanned if you are the planning kind. And always, always listen to your gut

3. Nerve is all you have when you are faced with a crash. Presence of mind is absolutely critical. One needs to deal with crashes with clinical precision.. Emotions are not allowed in a battle zone

4. Something is there to watch over the two of us.. we have battled it out with roads in the most hostile of places.. I have felt the force field around, more than once..

5. You are safest on your own steed when on a long ride. You know your bike inside out, and that makes a big difference in catching the signals your bikes send your way…

So guys be safe as Vishwas and I have literally ended 2009 with a bang! truly fitting to a biker

……………………………………………………………………..

PS: We grabbed our vacation back from the disaster. Including a trip to varkala after two days of rest. And the day before Vishwas left for home mom decides to give some gyan

“You guys should get knee protection before your next big trip”

I Couldn’t have summarized it better

May 2010 be safer!! Enjoyyy