Nothing prepares you to handle the situation when it happens to
you. That's what I found out today while coming to office.
I was taking a shortcut from Sarjapur Road to Outer Ring Road through
the small road leading to Bellandur signal. As I was getting into
Outer Ring Road at this junction, a person was walking across the road
at the intersection. Due to the heavy traffic at this junction, I was
going very slow and I noticed this person (and vice versa) at the
junction. I cross him and get onto the Outer Ring Road. As soon as I
pass him, I hear a sharp metallic sound. My immediate thought was why
did this person tap on my car, because it sounded like that (later on,
I realized it coud have been a metallic object as well). Even though I
was in the rightmost lane (next to the median), I stopped my card and
looked behind to see what had happened. I saw the person waving (in a
relaxed manner, not agitated) and felt he was apologizing. So I didn't
bother about it much, and continued driving. There was no further
roadblock and I reached the Intel junction in no time.
As soon I crossed the signal, I heard a bike honking. Now, it is very
common to have all sort of vehicles honking at you, and I didn't pay
much attention to it. Besides, there were a lot of vehicles on the
road around me and I was not sure if the honking was directed at me.
At the next junction (in front of New Horizon college), I had to get
into the service road and so I stopped at the junction. The bike which
was honking pulled up beside me, and the guy was trying to tell me
something (not sure which language). I rolled down the window, and
asked him (in Hindi) why was he honking so much. He replied back in
English, asking if I have realized that I have hit the person sitting
beside him at the Bellandur junction. That is when I noticed the same
guy sitting behind him, in a rather passive manner (he was at
arm's-length from me, and just staring at me). Both of them were well
built, and looked like goons. That's when all those emails came
flooding to me, and I panicked. I just rolled up my window, crossed
the road onto the service road and kept driving to the Cisco campus.
The bikers followed me into the service road, and at point tried to
overtake me. Fortunately, due to an oncoming vehicle from the other
direction, he couldn't and then left chase. He stopped at the New
Horizon college gate and the last I saw of the driver was he trying to
make (or at least pretending to) a phone call from his cellphone.
I drove on into the Cessna campus, stopped at the Cisco security check
where I felt safe and called SFOC. They took down the details, and
soon I got a call from George Arockiadas in the security department.
He checked with the Cisco and Prestige security if the bikers had come
looking for me (which didn't happen) and advised me not to take out my
car for the next few days.
Looking back, there were so many things I could have done. When I had
read emails on such incidents before, I had carefully looked at the
suggestions which were given to handle the situation should you face
it (like noting down the number plate of the bike, for one). Even this
had, obviously, not prepared me to face it. I didn't even find out if
it was a black Pulsar (like mentioned in the newspaper reports). And
all this happened in broad daylight on a busy street!
I am currently contemplating the future course of action.
Take care and be safe.
Regards,
XXXX
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