07th Feb 2011 , winters are bidding adieu and everyone wanted one more spell of chill so that the inevitable summers are delayed. And all prayers got answered in form of lightening gleaming off the dark evening. Dust gushed in the air and it blew hard to make herself felt.
IT had already started to drizzle as I was making way back to my car soon after passing the documents, I had to send to towers, and sipping a cup of tea with Ela, Rajeev and Kapil. I was gazing through the spaces between the vehicles on Shyam Chowk, hoping to find an opportunity to make my way on NH8, while I was getting seated in my car. Soon I was off the footpath and on the highway unaware of what was waiting.
A few yards ahead and it started raining cats and Dogs amidst sequence of red tail lights around like a pattern in kaleidoscope, with me sitting at the centre of it. Slowly it crept towards Shankar chowk and the rain was at its peak. Only water and red lights filtering through it. Volume of Fm was soon dwarfed by the rhythm of down pour on the metal car roof.
I trusted My car for its behavior in such scenarios, even if the tyres took fractions longer to stop on application of brakes, I was sure that it won't render me helpless on jam packed highway. So I crossed the red light with water roaring in my ears and red lit droplets blinding me over the wind shield. At snails pace, cris crossing, the moving lanes, I had now reached the toll bridge. Paid the toll and pressed accelerator hard to make my pass swift, only to stop at the end of a long swarming traffic Jam. The speed was negligible and every attempt to move across to moving lane by road runners added to annoyance. the rain had started to die down and the wipers were allowed to catch breath. Soon the music from Fm was loud enough to make sense, but the tail lights were stuck where they were. The clutch was and brakes pressed down with every 5ft I moved.
My eyes were on the tail lights of a red maruti swift and it was a while I had been following it. This was the second lane from the right divider and we were halted when I got shock of the lifetime.
With my left hand holding the gear, left foot on clutch fully pressed, and right foot on the brake, my eyes were waiting for the red swift to move ahead and follow it as I have doing for past 15 mins. It was about 500 mtrs that had passed since the toll bridge. I had everything in control when all of a sudden my car started moving backwards. It was on first gear and the brake was pressed hard. It took me 2 seconds to realise that the brake had failed. Shocked, I checked if engine was on to rule out hydraulic failure due to engine off, it was on and the car was still inching back, took my feet off the brakes and pressed the other pedal thinking I had pressed the accelerator, but I was wrong, the car was still moving backwards picking speed, it was high time I pulled the hand brakes as the last resort, but it was as useless as others. It became cold and eyes got blinded, no sound sounded and I felt my breath rushing off my lungs. I was going to hit my back, and I had no control over it. My confident self took a backseat and I surrendered, and in that helplessness I lifted my foot off the clutch, I felt a jerk waking me up to life, the car was stopped and a loud honk was outrageous indicating what could have been the outcome.
I breathed as if I had never taken a breath and looked at the dash board, The car was stopped, the hand brake indicator was red. The red swift was farther than it originally was.
In no time I spun the key and the car was started. The accelerator made roar when pressed and I moved the car on first gear. Then applied the brake, the car stopped, moved further and applied again, it stopped again, the brake was working fine.
What about hand brake, it stopped the car too...
I had no answer and I was cold. Unable to digest what had just happened. I was not thinking straight. I carried on for next 20 mins with my state and all of a sudden the lightening stuck. I was ascending over the Rajokari fly over and applied brakes.
' The road my brakes failed on was a flat section of the highway, there was no slope , why did my car start moving backwards.?????'
What was that??? why the brakes failed all of a sudden??? why didn't the hand brake work??? How come it all became fine all of a sudden.
And above all what pushed my car back before it stopped finally, I was all questions and still looking for answers......
IT had already started to drizzle as I was making way back to my car soon after passing the documents, I had to send to towers, and sipping a cup of tea with Ela, Rajeev and Kapil. I was gazing through the spaces between the vehicles on Shyam Chowk, hoping to find an opportunity to make my way on NH8, while I was getting seated in my car. Soon I was off the footpath and on the highway unaware of what was waiting.
A few yards ahead and it started raining cats and Dogs amidst sequence of red tail lights around like a pattern in kaleidoscope, with me sitting at the centre of it. Slowly it crept towards Shankar chowk and the rain was at its peak. Only water and red lights filtering through it. Volume of Fm was soon dwarfed by the rhythm of down pour on the metal car roof.
I trusted My car for its behavior in such scenarios, even if the tyres took fractions longer to stop on application of brakes, I was sure that it won't render me helpless on jam packed highway. So I crossed the red light with water roaring in my ears and red lit droplets blinding me over the wind shield. At snails pace, cris crossing, the moving lanes, I had now reached the toll bridge. Paid the toll and pressed accelerator hard to make my pass swift, only to stop at the end of a long swarming traffic Jam. The speed was negligible and every attempt to move across to moving lane by road runners added to annoyance. the rain had started to die down and the wipers were allowed to catch breath. Soon the music from Fm was loud enough to make sense, but the tail lights were stuck where they were. The clutch was and brakes pressed down with every 5ft I moved.
My eyes were on the tail lights of a red maruti swift and it was a while I had been following it. This was the second lane from the right divider and we were halted when I got shock of the lifetime.
With my left hand holding the gear, left foot on clutch fully pressed, and right foot on the brake, my eyes were waiting for the red swift to move ahead and follow it as I have doing for past 15 mins. It was about 500 mtrs that had passed since the toll bridge. I had everything in control when all of a sudden my car started moving backwards. It was on first gear and the brake was pressed hard. It took me 2 seconds to realise that the brake had failed. Shocked, I checked if engine was on to rule out hydraulic failure due to engine off, it was on and the car was still inching back, took my feet off the brakes and pressed the other pedal thinking I had pressed the accelerator, but I was wrong, the car was still moving backwards picking speed, it was high time I pulled the hand brakes as the last resort, but it was as useless as others. It became cold and eyes got blinded, no sound sounded and I felt my breath rushing off my lungs. I was going to hit my back, and I had no control over it. My confident self took a backseat and I surrendered, and in that helplessness I lifted my foot off the clutch, I felt a jerk waking me up to life, the car was stopped and a loud honk was outrageous indicating what could have been the outcome.
I breathed as if I had never taken a breath and looked at the dash board, The car was stopped, the hand brake indicator was red. The red swift was farther than it originally was.
In no time I spun the key and the car was started. The accelerator made roar when pressed and I moved the car on first gear. Then applied the brake, the car stopped, moved further and applied again, it stopped again, the brake was working fine.
What about hand brake, it stopped the car too...
I had no answer and I was cold. Unable to digest what had just happened. I was not thinking straight. I carried on for next 20 mins with my state and all of a sudden the lightening stuck. I was ascending over the Rajokari fly over and applied brakes.
' The road my brakes failed on was a flat section of the highway, there was no slope , why did my car start moving backwards.?????'
What was that??? why the brakes failed all of a sudden??? why didn't the hand brake work??? How come it all became fine all of a sudden.
And above all what pushed my car back before it stopped finally, I was all questions and still looking for answers......
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