Escape

Escape(yatendra singh) We had a student science exhibition in school that day. Most of us made several models, such as a volcano or generating electricity from rotten tomatoes. Some were showing the change of potential energy into kinetic energy. It was exciting at starting but when the number of guests decreased students lost interest in the event and it became boring. Later when the teachers became busy in other activities, as there was an art exhibition too, someone from the group came up with an idea to have a road–trip. There was a national park nearby so it was thoughtful, as we could come back before the exhibition ended, within 3 hours possibly. Some students agreed, some didn’t, as they feared a deduction in their grades if found out by teachers. But later when the lack of guests became too intolerable everybody agreed.

There were five bikes with one rider along with a pillion on each except the one I was riding. We were three boys on a bike, so we were very cautious about the cops as tripling and riding without a helmet makes u eligible to get a ticket. So every time we saw a check post or patrolling van we sped up…and escaped. After half an hour we reached the city from where the national park starts... But we couldn’t go through the main entrance as none of us had helmets and to enter the park one must pass through the check post. So it was decided to take the alternative path, which I knew. Our alternate route kind of looked like a race track in NFS, like one side of the road is followed by huge mountain and the rest is followed by curves on it.

One of us shouted, “yo, let's have a race as they do on TV in rally sports….” Though he was only joking all of us accelerated hard and started racing. After a while, as I knew the track, I advised the rider at no.1 position to slow down, cuz there were very sharp turns ahead, but he didn’t listen to me. Then he apparently disappeared. We were riding at no.2 position and at 3 and 4 position there were other friends, within no distance from us, and at no.5 were whom I call cowards, riding too slow, so that they were hardly visible in the rear view mirror. Back at school they both always used to tell stories about their biking abilities but now it was clear.

The next turn on the road looked like the inverted image of alphabet “c” and the very next was like the real image of “c”. The turns were so sharp that we had to apply the brakes hard, but still we could manage to get a glimpse of the guy at no.1 spot, moving at a high speed. As I knew the track is going to get narrower, we stopped by and decided to call them also because we had to take a right turn from there. When we stopped there were no signs of the guys at no.5, and the phone wasn’t reachable… as we were in deep jungle. Since we were riding on high lands we could see a village coming up. After a sharp turn I saw a guy getting himself off a huge pile of sand. It looked liked the pillion rider at no.1 spot, but I wasn’t sure so tried to confirm from my pillion riders. When they recognised the guy we halted there and looked for the main rider. A few meters off the road there was a bike completely crashed into a telephone pole, and there was a guy in between the bike and the pole and lying fainted with huge blood flowing out of his right leg. It was very hard to see.

Everybody was wondering, 'how would we explain this to people back in town?'
Though the guy at the pillion seat didn’t get much injuries, he wasn’t able to talk when asked about how it happened.

Then, with the help of some locals, we took them to a local hospital. There, in the absence of the actual doctor, the interns took care of both of them. The pillion was given just first aid, but that other guy literally had a hole in his thighs. Those intern doctors told us that this could have been life threatening to him if we hadn’t brought him there in time, cuz excessive blood loss may lead to permanent brain damage or death.

They treated him, and after an hour he opened his eyes, so we decided to take him back to his home. We placed his bike in a tempo and he also sat in the cabin. But this wasn’t the end. It was hard to explain things back at his home, and later when he was taken to a private hospital for the examination of his wounds the doctor told us that whoever treated him stitched in one of his veins and this could poison his whole bloodstream. But fortunately the doctor didn’t let it happen and operated on him and after a week he began to improve. Now he is doing fine and he plays cricket too!

It was a very scary experience. Our friend had a very close death experience. Fortunately he survived. I would like to advise young kids not to be a slave of your adrenaline rush. Always wear a helmet and be safe.