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

Matrix

I was one of those who enjoyed the Matrix movie but never believed those slow-motion action sequences. Atleast till that accident happened. As soon as the container coming in the opposite direction grazed our bus, the glass windows shattered. The broken glasses passed in front of my eyes in slow motion (believe me - I could see those sparkling pieces in flight). And before I could appreciate that beautiful trajectory and artisitc motion, the bus rammed into the tree.

Sixth Sense

Till the time the accident happened there were several pointers to the upcoming incident. Some will call it as co-incidence, some will call it as divine intervention. But I prefer to categorize it as sixth sense.

1. The local bus which we took to the KSRTC bus stand rammed into a car (Inauspicious start)
2. Subh's parents were extremely uneasy this time regarding the trip. Normally they arent (Subh is a frequent traveller)
3. When the bus stopped at Mysore - I had asked my colleagues to cancel the kerala plan and stay back in Mysore itself. Unfortunately they took it as a joke :-( and I couldnt convince them what with return ticket also booked to kerala.

Luck:
All the infoscions were sitting in the left side of the bus which saved us. Right side was heavily damaged.

Coincidence:
A newly married couple was sitting in separate seats due to last minute booking. They had swapped seats with Hrishikesh. It turned out that both of them died (couldnt personally confirm though). We comforted hrishikesh bcoz its better than one of the couple being alive.

Press Reports

We found a similar clipping in Times of India also.

Like the majority, I trust the newspaper like a bible. However my confidence was shattered after seeing the news reports in the newspapers. Not one but several had wrong details. Some where down right lazy to write a report after just visiting the Apollo hospital.

Errors:

1) The no of injuries reported - took into account only those who had taken x-rays in Apollo. Atleast this is true with regard to reports under the heading "from Infosys". What about those who were treated in K.R. Hopsital. Infact non-Infoscion co-passenger had eye-surgery there (likelihood of recovering his vision is just 20%)

2) "Eye witness attributed the accident to slippery road condition" - hmm that is news for us. The road wasnt slippery by any counts. It was just moist....

3) "driver of the bus lost control over the vehicle when a truck (HR 55B 7205) while trying to overtake, hit the bus from behind." As passenger in the bus we can confirm that we grazed only against a container coming from the opposite direction. Infact the speed at which our bus was travelling, no truck could have even thought about overtaking. These people cant even get some facts straight before publishing. This is being lapped up by other news agencies also :-(

4) "Amitabh babbar" - Please dont rechristen anybody without their permission. Please check the bills/patient records in Apollo or ask us (guess the reporter came very late after we had been discharged). He is Ankit Babbar.

Emergency Contact No

Immediately after the accident, I dialled 1062 from reliance only to get "Plz check the no u hav dialled". Later on came to realize that I have to put the STD code in front :-(

Neel called up 100 while I tried 101/2/3 in vain. Atlast it got through in 100 and we reported the incident.

However another infoscion had called Infosys and they responded so rushed with the Ambulance in 15 mins straight. Infact the govt should send their emergency response team to be trained under these folks. Not only did they rush to the hospital, they had even passed the information to Bangalore also just in case somebody enquired. We were surprised that even our Manager was appraised about the situation.

We felt proud that we were working in Infosys. No other company would have taken care better than this. Others might tempt with better salary but when it comes to care and values, Infy tops by a mile.

We have concluded that from next time, instead of trying to remember all the emergency nos - just memorize Infosys no.

Frog and the magic mirror

Mirror Mirror on the wall
Who is the fairest of them all?

Beautiful Day

The last 24 hours have been awesome for several reasons.

First of all, I got a call from Priyank Pant. He was my former colleague, batchmate, PC mate and project mate during training. Eventhough I have some awesome colleagues working with me, no one can ever replace him. During the training days, we used to be in the "zone". When all others rush into coding to meet the deadlines, we used to laze around just brainstorming new design ideas and features. We spend 33% of the project time, debating and finalizing the entire design. Though we will be the last one to start coding the project, we have never exceeded the time limit. We used to push each other through the limits and both of us believed that design was the most important thing. If it werent for him, I wouldnt have obtained a CGPA of 5/5. Thanks dude.

Secondly my faith in my company was restored. I had set the grievance redressal mechanism in motion and it worked so well, that I trust the values of the company. If you are a regular follower of my other blogs, you would have guessed as to what I am talking too. Anyway watch out for updates :-)

Last (atleast last till the time of this blog) but not the least I recieved an sms from my long lost friend wishing for the New Year.

I dont want to goto bed. I want to utilize this day to the max and no point in wasting a lovely and lucky day by hitting the bed.