• When I was a small kid of two years old, I fell into a big water tank which was used by the women folk in my family for bathing. My mum was washing clothes nearby. I was playing around and somehow, my research around the tank led me into the tank. My mum didn’t know this at all, but our servant maid who saw unusual bubbles on the surface of water through the kitchen windows ran all the way from kitchen and salvaged me from the tank. Till her death which happened a decade ago, this old maid whenever she met me, lovingly claimed that I owed my life to her and it was true!
  • During my graduate school days, I had the privilege of owning a bicycle which was a matter of great pride in my rural scenario. I was so proud as if I owned a Mercedes! One evening, as usual I was returning from college along the highway bridge. As soon as I reached the beginning of the bridge I saw a bus coming from the other end and a truck coming from my behind. The bridge was not so wide enough to accommodate two buses and pedestrians or bicycles in one row. So I stopped, but didn’t climb down the cycle, instead halted by keeping my legs on the railings of the bridge. Unfortunately, the dynamics of the process worked in some other unexpected way that I fell onto the road where the truck from my behind was expected to pass through within seconds. The few seconds that passed by are marvelous, I was lying down immobile, can hear the roaring noise of the truck and was expecting the cracking sound of my skull when the tyre gets past my head. Nothing happened, I heard a screeching sound of halting truck, I was spared again.
  • Thirtytwo years ago, I was walking through Lodhi gardens in New Delhi, suddenly I felt a kind of buckling in both my knees. Next day, I went to All India Institute of Medical Sciences for a casual checkup, the doctors told me I had a serious motor neuron disease called perennial muscular dystrophy and I won’t live for more than five years! Three decades have passed by since then, nothing happened!

I was spared three times from terminal situations, you know what is the reason for my escape? I was destined for another goal — River Valley and a wonderful life with you all!