The Right Left Turn

By Chirag Bhatia

“Sir can you please make it quick and leave” demanded the CCD boy as he handed over a 345 rupees cheque to Sunil. Yes the reason I say demanded and not requested was because we had occupied that table for close to 2.5 hours and our order was 3 cappuccino’s only. There was a long queue of people to be attended and it was a regular state of affairs at that particular Chandani Chowk CCD located in the outskirts of Pune. The crowd didn’t seem to go anywhere because I guess that’s what happens in a 24 hr CCD. So after the brief moment of silence and embarrassment Sunil looked at Wasim, Wasim looked at Benny, Benny looked at me and then all four of us looked at Mehul, our very own philanthropist. Right away he took one of the many credit cards peeping out of his wallet, settled the bill and we were ready to set off to our Magarpatta residence.

I was a pillion to Wasim and suddenly out of nowhere , I announced  “Wasim bike tera bhai chalayega  aaj“  .I still don’t know till date whether it was the awesome weather of Pune ,the deserted roads or the zero hour which compelled me to say this. “Bhai 2 garib software engineer mar jayenge agar tune chalayi “was his point blank response since he was very much cognizant of my awesome driving skills.

Eventually post some nagging and convincing, Wasim agreed to be the pillion and I took control. As expected our journey began shaky and it didn’t change much either .As we moved forward (read crawled) on the highway, it seemed seasons changed and kingdoms flourished during that age but Magarpatta seemed miles away. We managed to cut down the highway and reached a crossroad where I was supposed to take right, but so lost in my thoughts, I accidentally took a left .Poor Benny, Sunil and Mehul had to bear the brunt and followed en route.

The road progressed and our bikes kept rolling forward but abruptly a km later, came our next halt to the corner of a rough concrete road. A big mob of curious on lookers had overcrowded an upturned car and a motionless middle aged man who seemed half dead to me at first sight.  I gasped for breath, our faces turned pale and the sight of blood oozing out of his body almost made me puke. Finally, some sense prevailed and one of us stopped a passing vehicle to seek help. Almost immediately we rushed him to the nearby Hadapsar Hospital and he survived. I have had a very run-of-the-mill kind of life…school, college, office etc.etc. Never did anything great, but certainly that night we did something worth a mention.

Today when I retrospect may be were destined to be there, but it’s a series of funny events that got all five of us right there. At the outset we were never supposed to go that CCD but Wasim insisted and we just landed there. Hadn’t I forced Wasim to let me drive that night, he would have driven. We never would have taken that left turn and wouldn’t have been pulled to that road to help.

I did realize that day there are certain things that will just happen to you, you just can’t plan them .May be some day when you step up out of that front door you might land up in your dream job or run into someone who badly needs your help or may end up meeting someone special .Universe has a plan and it will be in motion making sure you end up there at the right place right time.

I have been a part of many unexpected rather funny events that were instrumental in meeting some really special people …but let that story unfold another day.  As many say”everything happens for a reason” may be it does. Also as Paulo Coelho voices out inThe Alchemist “the universe conspires” , may be it does because one “wrong left turn can take you too many right places ….”