I was in that bus.......

I was out with my crew - Neel Arurkar and Subhabrato for outdoor shoot in Munnar. On 21 April 2005, we were travelling in that ill fated bus which met with an accident. As can be seen from the clipping two died on the spot whereas unconfirmed reports added that two more died in the hospital. 10 more are still in the ICU.

All was well when we boarded the 19:15 KSRTC Rajahamsa vehicle bound for Ernakulam via Mysore. With lots of dreams for a nice vacation as well as snaps for the SudaSudaCoffee, we had set out for Kerala. We reached Mysore when coincidentally we were joined by 5 more Infoscions from Mysore DC. Three from Mysore too had planned on vacation to the same spot where we were headed to and the other two were visiting their home town.

Within 10mins infront of Mysore Palace, a container vehicle grazed against the bus. The glass windows disintegrated and they were flying everywhere. The bus driver lost control and rammed into a tree. Two passengers who were travelling in the cabin along with the driver died on the spot. And scores of people were injured. There was pandemonium everywhere bcoz the main door was jammed and there was no emergency exit.

Since it was very close to Mysore city, ambulance rushed to the scene in 10 mins. Critically injured were shifted in the ambulance whereas the rest of us were evacuated via passing bus to K.R.Hospital. One of the infoscion had called up is colleague via mobile who inturn informed the security incharge. Within minutes they marshalled their resources and they reached the hospital before us!!! They helped us clear all the formalities/paperwork. Since its a medico-legal case, they dont handover the xray to the patients. Due to this, some of us were taken to Apollo for personal medical treatment. Except for one who had fracture and may be spinal injuries, rest of us were really lucky. We had cuts/bruises/swollen heads/limbs and eye-lids. Still we were stirred but not shaken. Except for 1 who was admitted into Apollo, rest of us were escorted back to Infy Mysore where we recupperated in the guest house.

In Infy we even met over lunch and dinner.

Lunch:


Leftmost: The one who rushed along with the ambulance. Cant thank u enough dude
Second: Anuj, one of the few who didnt get hurt much.
Third: Ankit who was reported in the paper as Amitabh !!! Swollen Arm - Still cant help laughing thinking about the treatment suggested by Apollo :-)
Fourth: Thats me. Nothing more than swollen head (due to impact), glass piercing here and there, cut in the eye-lids. Thankfully it wasnt down by a few cms!!!!
Fifth: Subh - swollen legs. Still limping - recover soon buddy.
Sixth: Neel with some pain in the hips but recovered after some sound sleep


Dinner:

Leftmost: Supriya. Thanks a lot for translating that kannada newspaper.
Rightmost: Hrishikesh - Not a single scratch on him. Infact he was searching for the next bus to continue his trip !!!!

Couple of persons arent covered in the snap :-(. Meanwhile lets pray that Jayanth recovers soon from Apollo. Guys plz post the updates as comments in this blog or else email us.

- Dheepak Ra