Deathly Encounter @ Salalah

You may not be reading this dispatch, but for The Almighty’s graciousness. I would have been history. Along with three younger colleagues from UMS: god-fearing Layout artist Balagopalan; chirpy and bubbly photographer Rajesh Burman; newcomer correspondent Jayashankar Menon.

We – the quartet – came face to face with Death on 12th October, the day of Eid-ul-Fitr. We did not anticipate this ‘encounter’ as we set off from Muscat at 5.30 a.m. on that fateful Friday to enjoy the long Eid weekend. We did not bargain for what happened on Day One!

It was 12.10 p.m. with the Sun at its high. Cool breeze was wafting in the atmosphere.We were on the Thumrayat territory. Hardly 60 km away from Salalah, our Toyota Echo careened away from its carriageway and threw itself against the muddy, rocky terrain on the other side of the road. Totally engulfed in a cloud of dust and rubble. For a minute or so, we remained dazed.

How we escaped unhurt when the car was speeding at 140 kmph is a mystery. Bala, at the wheels, just could not control the speeding machine at the sharp right turn and boom! We fully realized as the four wheeler got dragged sideways. Not a scratch on the car! Not even a minor scratch on our bodies! Yes, we were speechless and stunned.

Luckily, there was absolutely no traffic in our lane – front and rear. So also, the road on the other side (running towards Muscat) with no divider was absolutely empty. Rajesh, seated next to Bala, went into a cocoon. Jay quickly ducked sideways and quickly catching hold of my left arm. Stunned, I quickly hardened my back against the rear seat and shut my eyes.

Hardly a minute later, two Omani drivers came to the spot where we were stranded and enquired about our well being. By God’s grace, there were no iron railings on the side. Otherwise, our vehicle would have gone for a toss and both – the car and us – would have been hurt badly. We could not believe our fate!

Bala, expectedly, could not sleep for two consecutive nights. Jay – father of two kids, the latest being hardly six months old - could not resist praying in multi-languages to his favourite Gods. He even called up his wife in Chennai to relive the miraculous escape. Rajesh, the most gregarious and motor-mouth bachelor from Thiruvananthapuram, was rendered mute for a short while. Sharp 8 p.m., I went to sleep. My mind was with filled with scenarios of how UMS office would handle this crisis – an unwanted and unwarranted perhaps.

I could not resist recalling another ‘deathly experience’ I had encountered a few months in the Omani airspace. The Oman Air flight from Delhi to Muscat took off with a burst tyre and I had to go through the emergency landing drill inflight – 30 minutes before the touchdown. A few times, the aircraft flew at the ATC tower level for the staff to ascertain the nature of tyre burst.

After few attempts, we touched down in the middle of the airstrip. First time experience for me. An young Punjabi painter, seated next to me, kept telling, ‘Death is certain. When is the question? Let’s face it’. The entire cabin – full capacity crowd – mostly Indians – were literally on tears. Including yours truly. That time, my worry was: how will my family face a bad news of this sort. Nothing happened then. Nothing happened now. Insha Allah! The air quota is over. So also the land quota. Now I am awaiting the water quota!!!

Three years ago, I wrote & published ‘The X Factor’, a poem eulogizing Death!

Click http://familyramesh.blogspot.com/2004/06/x-factor.html to read the same.

Cheers

P.S.: Notwithstanding this, we had a ‘ball’ on the Salalah coast. All about it, soon.