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Friends,
No ode to my car will be complete without a repost of the following email which was originally posted to a group of friends. It involves the car in question and is another aspect of motoring. Morbid but a compelling read nevertheless, I would think.
Venkat
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Friends,
Here is what happened, all from my point of view.
At around 4.15 am on Sunday morning, my servant knocked on my bedroom door and used the words Willie and Accident in the same sentence. I bolted upright and opened the door, when she gave me the cordless and it was Willie on the other end, telling me that they had suffered an accident enroute to Goa and gave me details of the location, injuries, Mabel's situation etc. He told me to come immediately there.
When I kept the phone down, my head was still reeling with the impact of the news. Sleep abandoned me.
I was wondering why he had not called me on my cell. When I went to it, I saw a string of missed calls, starting from 1:29 am. My cell was in silent mode thanks to Vighnesh's hospitalization and surgery the previous day. But that is another story.
I brushed my teeth. I awakened Usha and appraised her of the situation. asked her how much cash she had. We put together whatever we both could muster and while she made me a cup of tea I had a quick shower to shrug off any residual drowsiness. By 4:45 am I was on the road with some bottles of cold water in a chiller and some fresh clothes for Jarvis from Viveks collection.
I sped as fast as I could. I knew I had about 250 + kms to cover and I should do it within 5 hours max. It was a continuous interplay between speed and urgency on the one hand while caution and safety in the early morning twilight made me slowdown a bit. I stopped for something to eat, but ended up having just a cup of tea at Visava, Poladpur. I reached the hospital at about 9:30 am. The directions were perfect.
The Gramin Rungnalaya was elementary and rustic. I entered and saw Josephine, Willie's Mom and Jarvis lying on the bed with bandages and asleep. Nikita ( Mabel's daughter) came to me crying while Chris ( Son ) sat in stoned silence. All of them were dirty and disheveled. There were about 5 other co-passengers in various states of injury. I consoled Nikita ( as best as I could ) and slowly each one of them awoke. Besides sympathy, all I could offer was cold water. I went out and met Mrs Kshirsagar, the sister in charge. Read the ward reports and appraised myself of the extent of injuries, diagnosis and medications offered so far. I was given various explanations of whatever happened. I was least interested in what had happened. I was more interested in getting them top class medical attention, ASAP.
I was informed that Willie had gone to get the body of Mabel post post-mortem and also arrange for an ambulance. I talked to him on the phone and he told me to stay put at the hospital while he finished the formalities and came there with the body. I took the bags and put them in the car while I told the Sister to prepare the discharge papers.
Willie came there with the ambulance. He had a black eye and was quite dirty himself. Mabel's body was in the ambulance covered in white cloth and plastic. After a quick exchange of sympathies we got down to business.
Mrs Philomena D'Souza, another co-passenger had a dislocated hip and also had to be taken back to Mumbai. While the others could travel in my car, there was no way she could sit up. Mabel's body was moved to the seat while Philomena was taken with the mattress and put on the floor of the ambulance. Willy sat in the ambulance.
The rest of the family got into my car and we started on the way back at about 11:30 am.
We had a meal break enroute. Nobody had any appetite, but they had not eaten anything for more than 12 hours now. I myself had a Masala Dosa while I ordered Idli/Wada and Mosambi juice and had it served in the car itself. No point in having a bunch of strapped / bandaged / dirty / disheveled co-diners sitting in the restaurant in full public view. I was reminded about the Asterix and Obelix cartoons where the beaten Roman soldiers beat a hasty retreat back to base camp. Humor, I was happy to note, had not eluded me.
I called up Usha and she was in continuous touch with me. I appraised her of the injuries and told her to call up Rajesh U and inform him of our status and to keep beds ready. As I neared Mumbai, I was in continuous touch with Dr Rajesh, who himself was in Delhi, Dr Jayaram who was standing in for him, Usha, who was co-ordinating everything and Raju who was moving back from Vapi.
Willie had spoken to Rudy and in the meanwhile they had made arrangements to get the body into the VN Desai hospital at Scz E. Usha was there along with the others at the VN Desai hospital to receive the ambulance and put the body into the morgue.
It was 5 pm when I drove straight into the Dr Rajesh U nursing home and got my car load admitted. Dr Jayaram was there and each one was taken for up for sessions of xrays, strappings, Tetanus, antibiotics and drips with a whole bunch of friends, visitors, nurses all there. I knew the medical condition and spent a lot of time seeing that each one of them was given the right treatment and there were no slip ups in all the confusion that reigned. I had to often correct Dr Jayaram and his team from confusing between the dislocated shoulder of bed 8 with the hairline fracture of bed 5. Confused doctors, ignorant nurses, local anesthesia and general commotion can itself further add to the calamity.
By the time we finished with most, it was around 9 pm. Nikita and Chris did not need hospitalization. Usha took them home. Around that time I realized that Willie had not eaten anything or slept since the last 24 hours. And he was on the phone all the time. I got his calls diverted to my cell. I wanted him also to rest. Now that all of the affected were treated and in safe hands.
Until that day, in all my 35 years, I had not seen Willie cry. Ever. I knew that he was emotionally on the brink. The stress of the past 24 hours was beginning to take its toll.
Dr Jayaram and me decided that it was best to sedate everyone for that night. Dinner was served. I informed Willie about the medical status of each one. I also told him that each one had been sedated. He wondered how. He put his head on the pillow and was promptly snoring.
By the time I went home and had a bath and sat down for dinner, it was 11pm. I realized that I had eaten only a Masala Dosa on a full and eventful day.
Venkat
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Last edited by Venkat : 27th February 2008 at 15:13.
Reason: Removing HTML tags
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25th February 2008, 20:31
