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hello from Chicagoland USA

719 views 9 replies 6 participants last post by  1stversys 
#1 ·
Hi

New owner of a 2015 kawasaki vesys 650 for the last 4 months - racked up 1000+ miles in the last 2 months (no driving in Dec till Feb). Love the bike since its been after 12 years I am back on the saddle. Last rode back in India and stopped riding after a bad accident which tortured be physically and mentally (after form broken bones and roadrash), passenger landed in a coma for a week. She recovered though....so.

Anyway looking forward to piling up some miles and riding one up only.....

Glad to be here to learn from the lot.

Regards
S:laugh:
 
#4 ·
well....its a long story. however to cut it short....i was doing my MBA in Delhi, India and just before my second semester had gone in for a interview for summer internship which promised a lot of money for 4-5 weeks of work. Since almost 20+ people were shortlisted and interviews started late - pretty much the final interviews ran into close to midnight.

this was 12 years back in a place (even in the capital of India) where public transport at midnight was....well unavailable. The company offered to drop the students back to the campus - but that would have taken till 1 am.

since i used to drive a bike, one of my colleagues (and my then girlfriend) asked me to drop her back to the campus so that she could ride back home. She had her car parked at the campus and by the time she would reach home would be close to 3am if she took the company bus.

since Delhi often tries its best to the R@#$ capital of india as well - i offered her a ride back although I had a puny passenger helmet (no certification) available that day (one of my friends in college borrowed the better helmet when i was out and dropped a note, instead of calling and askign me - all fate). so we started off for our campus - a 35 min ride, close ot midnight.

and just to add, in India we had absolutely no concept of safety gear apart form the helmet.

midway - i stopped to fill up gas and since i was getting on the highway later, flipped down my helmet (used a decent modular helmet). I was taking directions from my passenger since i was new to the city - a series of wrong turns - finally on the highway - getting up to about 45-50 miles/hr, when suddenly a couple of bikers trying to avoid a state bus (they are the biggest killers on the capital roads) came right in front of me. I dont know what they were doing but pretty much they sort of stopped right in front of me and i hit them squarely in the middle - both of us flew off.

sort of a high side - i flew off and landed on my shoulders and head and knew and rolled a few times. the impact shattered by collarbone at 2 places, dislocated my patella bone and general roadrash. i blacked out but probably came back after a few minutes. a crowd had gathered by then (lucky us - tons of people on the highways in India even at midnight). as i got up - i saw my co-passenger lying close to the side of the road, unconscious. she had hit her head on the sidewalk - the helmet had stayed intact, no visible injuries.

no 911 service is available in India - however cops drive us to the largest and one of the best hospitals in Delhi - i was sort of worse off initially - got tended. painful but i could take it - the adrenaline was still doing its bit. My co-passenger was taken in for CT scans when did not regain consciousness. This was about 1 hr since the accident happened - the scan results showed internal head trauma and two clots forming - this meant immediate intervention through surgeries. luckily my brother was stationed int he same city and he came in and he knew the head of neurosurgery of that hospital. within the next 45 mins two surgeries were performed on her - by 5 am another surgery was performed.

she was pronounced out of danger but did not regain consciousness and without that doctors could not actually understand the extent of the damage to her other organs - she had slipped into a comatose state. she came around 4-5 days later from the coma and was diagnosed with amnesia with some damage affecting her speech. (for someone who spoke 3 other local languages apart from French and Japanese). I was discharged on the second day - however i tried to make daily visits which was difficult yet....however.

Few challenges were:
1. Our semester exams were in 2 weeks - i gave the exams with my right shoulder in a sling and some extra time for writing down my answers. She missed it - was out of action for 4 months. However therapy and support from friedns and family meant she regained about 80% of her memory and 50% of her speech. She passed her semester exams on the third semester - our institute was very generous in this situation.
2 She missed her summer internship - i had to do mine locally - thanks again to the largest automobile company in India
3. Her family never blamed me for the accident - however i kept on blaming myself, still do...
4. we stayed close for the next 6 months - she recovered well. however we drifted apart - her friends (closet feminists) blamed me squarely for the accident and psychologically created a lot of situations which resulted in a lot of misunderstandings. I was led to believe she was better off without me - and the immature person I was, I sort of followed suit.....

she recovered to almost 95% of her formal self and 90% of her speech by the end of the year - we both landed jobs in different cities. We stayed in touch through social media - and then both got married. I met her once when i was visiting a city she used to work in - it was a nice 1 hr i spent with her. that was it - some conversations, some memories, some journeys we took together are all that remain.
 
#7 ·
:welcome:
 
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