The Price of Wandering

I saw a guy on a motorcycle get hit by a BUS!! It was pretty much amazing and the only actual accident I've witnessed. Before anyone gets all worked up - no one was hurt. It was actually quite amusing. I'll start the story from the beginning.

I needed soap. It seems like such a natural and easy thing to come by (which turns out to be true, but I'll get to that later), but when the only place that you know you can buy soap is over a mile away and you don't have a car things become a little more difficult. I knew that this store which I had gotten soap at before was no more than a mile and a half away because I had ran to it in a little over ten minutes on one of my morning runs. I decided that I would take off from work a little early and walk to the store. So, I grabbed my wallet and headed for the door.

As I was walking along the road, listening to my iPod, I saw a motorcycle with two Indian men on it pull out into traffic. At this particular time there was a bus approaching, going the same direction that the motorcyclist intended to go. Fortunately, both of them were moving very slowly, but as I watched I thought to myself, "I wonder if that guy even sees that the bus is there." I don't know how a gigantic vehicle like a bus can sneak up on someone, but that's exactly what was happening. As the motorcyclist finally pulled into the lane, the bus hit him and he and his passenger fell over onto the ground - the motorcycle was pushed a couple of feet after it hit the ground and left white marks on the asphalt from where the pegs had dragged. I couldn't believe it.

In the aftermath of the accident, a crowd started to gather around and the owner of the motorcycle checked himself and his bike out to make sure it was ok. The bus was empty except for the driver and one other guy, but neither of them came out for quite a while. Finally, they both came out and the driver started talking rather heatedly in Tamil. I couldn't tell what he was saying, but I like to think it was something like, "Hey Bill, how are the wife and kids? It's kind of sad that I have to hit you with a bus in order for us to have a good talk nowadays." Actually, I think the bus driver thought it was not his fault because he was going so slow (seriously crawling) although he did just keep on going even though he could clearly see that the motorcyclist was pulling out. I also believe the motorcyclist thought the bus was stopped. Regardless, after the driver came out, a crowd really started to develop (people coming from across the street and whatnot), but I wanted to get my soap before supper so I sneaked away.

When I finally arrived at the store, it was closed. I knew it was usually open later because I went there after dark once, so I figured I'd stay until around 6 to see if it opened then. The train station is right nearby so I figured I'd take a look around. Turns out the train here is really cheap - you can take a ride from Hosur (where I am) to Bangalore for only about Rs10 ($0.25). It is kind of funny because Gerald (Dr. Christo's son) said he had to pay more for the auto-rickshaw from the train station to the compound (Rs40 and a little over a mile) than from Bangalore to Hosur (Rs10 and 60 miles I think). So yeah, I'll have to go to Bangalore one of these days.

After I explored the train station, I headed back towards the store, but it was still closed. I figured I'd just head home. As I started to get near to the compound, I started checking out all the little shops beside the road. As I got to the last couple of stands, I found soap! I bought 2 bars (one was the same brand as the kind I got at the other store previously). So the irony of the story is that I walked three miles only to find out that there was soap probably less than 100 yards from the compound... *sigh* oh well - I got to see a guy get hit by a bus!