close encounters...

It was 6 : 15 PM, Saturday the 13th. I was wearing a long lost shirt. I thought about wearing this shirt twice before I donned it. It was the same shirt I was wearing a few months back when a large hefty truck had bumped into my bike's bum. I was in a shock to see my bike under the truck's large tyre and the crumpled tail lights nearby. I shook off the morbid fear and started towards KP(Koregaon Park). I was enroute KP with a friend. It was such a great evening. I took the kirkee signal and speed past the roaring traffic across the Mumbai Pune Highway into a small desolate road leading towards Bombay Sappers. I could see the red sun towards the western horizons added with fresh breeze and some meager amounts of carbonmonooxide. It was never so pleasant to drive across the Holkar Bridge with such low amounts of unwanted carbon forms. I was about to drive across Bombay Sappers when my instincts suggested I better go to Shoppers Stop and buy some gifts for the V-Day.

I took a turn towards the kirkee war cemetery and joined the crowded wakdewadi road again. Believe me, it is such an ordeal to drive on these Pune streets. Anyways I can have another blog on Pune's traffic, but for now lets go back to wakdewadi road. Entered the mall, searched for a never seen before kind of a gift, did not find it, search failed. Thought I would get a gift from KP. Was about to return to my original quest towards KP, when my friend's dad called and gave the news. "DO NOT GO ANYWHERE, RETURN HOME ASAP". My phone buzzzzzed. I saw the message. SHIT SHIT SHIT.......

I was so dumbfound that I started perusing each letter in the message carefully. It clearly said "BOMB BLAST IN GERMAN BAKERY. DO NOT GO TO KP". It was a different feeling. Had I not turned towards Shoppers Stop, I could have seen the blast live, worse I would have my mouth full of some charred brown bread sandwich and a free tanned/charred skin in return. And the worst feeling of all, I could be the one to open the bag full of explosives. It was a chaos, a turbulence in my head. Took some time. Cooled down, composed and was back to myself again. Thought I would go to KP and provide whatever help needed. Well I could donate some blood if needed. But then the adrenaline dozed off after some senti calls from home. "Adhich gharachya lamb rahatoas" and all sort of stuff.

Came to my apartment, listened to what the news channels had to say and tried to sleep. Could not sleep and started writing (in fact typing) .... the benevolent hunch ....