The longest 2 minutes in my life

Nov 27th 2009 will remain entrenched in my memories for a very long time. It was on this very day that a bunch of bachelors from 934 embarked on an eventful journey to kattappana in Idukki.

Protagonists - Srihari, Jayadevan, Gibu, Gifty and myself

Sabin Thomas a.k.a vals getting married...Oh god, thou do bless these sinners so much. Don't you hear my prayers? Anyway he was getting married to Elizabeth on Nov 29th and we started from bangalore on the 27th. Soban, sabins sweet brother told us that he has booked us the best seats available on the kattapana bus. When we arrived at the bus stop, we found out that in his terms... best = last.

Jd was quite pissed off when he found that we had to travel to kattappana hugging the rear seats. Since the boarding point, madivala was quite a fond place for the guys at 934, I didn't want to create a scene. Well it was easy to pacify Jd; mere mention of the convenience of drinking alcohol at the rear of the bus did him in.

Sabins sister, gifty was also accompanying us and she must have been quite amused by the time the journey ended. Drinking had started en-route to the bus stop and by the time the bus started from madivala all of us were on a high. Jd and hari were quite intent on pulling gifty's leg and made sure that she was still familiar with all her degree topics by questioning her on the same; she accepted all that with alacrity :)

Well I was very tired and just wanted to doze off. Since it was a sleeper bus, 3 of us had bunks; jd and gibu were quite content sitting by the window. I dozed off almost immediately and was soon accompanied by hari. Time was almost 11pm

Time - 2pm :

I woke up hearing a horrifying scream and found myself being hurled against the ceiling of the bus. I turned around and saw hari screaming and falling down from the bunker.

The whole bus was toppling and everybody were being thrown around.

Friends, I really saw death...... I mean, someone was telling me that your whole life flashes before you at that instant; well not quite, but close....

Suddenly the bus came to a halt and started tilting to one side. It was pitch dark outside and I couldn't see a thing. There were old ladies in the bus and they were screaming aloud. My mind was racing...have we fallen from a bridge? Are we going to drown? God help me..I prayed out loud....

All of a sudden the bus came to a standstill. The whole event may have happened in 2 minutes, but they were definitely the longest 2 minutes in my life.

The first thing I did was to check on hari. A loud groan from him confirmed that he was alive. I heard a familiar voice hurling out abuses and was relieved to find that jd was ok. Gifty and gibu were also fine and all of us heaved a sigh of relief.

People were still crying out aloud in the bus and it was sometime before all of us got out.

These are some of the pics hari took after the incident. The only thing that saved us was the fact that we were seated at the rear. Thanks Sobs, that really turned out to be blessing in disguise.

Well all the people who were seated upfront were injured seriously and we could see a lot of blood around. By the time we came out of the bus, they were moved to the hospital. There was chaos all around with some cranks trying to get into the "I will do everything mode".

A night patrol gave us a lift to the nearest tea shop and we did a bit of bus hopping and reached kattappana the next day.

To think that I almost risked my life attending this buggars marriage.... Mr sabin, are u listening? :)

Ps: I was browsing through haris orkut albums today and came across the pics. Thought I will share the details...