Buffalo Hooves

On my way to my fiancée's house I was to look up my recovering grand uncle at the hospital. I was to traverse a stretch of road that had no street-lights near KG Koppal, Mysore. On my newish scooter, a Kinetic-Honda, in spite of the slight drizzle and unaware of what was impending, I started off from my Devaparthiva Road home when evening had already turned dark.

When I turned to that stretch of road, I found myself behind a slow-moving autorickshaw. When close behind it, you cannot see much of road. There was a herd of buffaloes - there must have been 15-20 - to my right, moving home. I slowly raised the throttle to overtake the 'auto'. I had the habit of looking at the speedometer to check which speed by habit as it was relatively new to me. It was showing 20 kph. But suddenly, the sight of a buffalo right in front of me crossing the road made my reflex apply brakes. When I did this, the hind side of the scooter swerved, balance took leave of me and my fall was inevitable. I was lying on my back and could hear my fallen scooter sputtering.

Then very suddenly, tens of buffalo-hooves clattered, running helter-skelter, confused by the accident. They all began crossing the road, me and my head . I could feel one hoof scraping my eyebrow! Passersby helped me to my feet and my scooter to its stand. How lucky I was!

I was going to the hospital anyway and so I got medical aid before continuing with that evening's agenda. My marriage was just a month away and my mother and fiancée were so relieved to know that I had just escaped with very minor injuries, so miraculously.

How those tens of powerful hooves that crossed me missed crushing my head or eyes and that nothing serious and untoward happened remains a mystery. There is also no scar on my skin nor any dent on mydear scooter to remind. But the very thought of those hooves passing over my head chills my blood even today, nearly 19 years after!