The day I died

The minivan was hurtling down the narrow ghat road at breakneck speed. The weather was looking ominous with darkness all over and claps of thunder striking over the town below the hill. The flashes of lightning looked eerie and the town looked like a ghost town with the power having blacked out at the first sign of rain!
The minivan had started way up in Kodaikanal hills at five in the evening and was proceeding slowly until a ford vehicle with rally markings over it overtook us almost ramming into us. The driver had to slam the brakes to avoid a major accident. This had enraged the minivan driver who wanted to teach the ford driver a lesson!
He had been driving like a raging lunatic to catch up with the speeding car. The dynamics and power of the minivan was no match to that of the low slung sedan. The rain had increased and sheets of waters was pounding the windows of the van.
The van was not slowing down in spite of the falling darkness and bad roads. The driver seemed to have only one objective in mind.
"What is the driver thinking?", I told myself
"Is he trying to kill us all? "
"Why is no one complaining to the driver? are all the passengers so dumb or are they used to these things?"
"Maybe I'm finding it tough to digest being in the last row of the van"
Suddenly the van was filled with the blinding lights of an oncoming vehicle that had switched its headlights on due to the rain.
"Darned idiot, why wont we ever learn not to use high beams! Selfish idiot" i mumbled to myself.
The oncoming vehicle had completely blinded the vision and still the driver was racing. The vehicle crossed and suddenly we realized that we were running breakneck speed into a low hanging branch of a tree by the ghat road side. The driver swung hard to avoid the branch and the vehicle started sliding.
"eeeeeeeeaa..." I screamed involuntarily fearing for life. My stomach had somehow found the way into my mouth!
The other passengers seemed unperturbed and turned and gave me a nasty look as though to ask.. 'what are you five year old?"
I gave an apologetic look though I was confused as to how they can be so stoic amidst all this craziness.
The driver somehow managed to recover from this maneuver and was accelerating again! I was praying that the ghat road finish soon. I tried stealing a look down the ghat to check how much descent was left.
I could make out amidst the flashes of lightning that another twenty minutes of travel must be left.
"baaaaaaaaaaaaaammm", another vehicle passed in hte opposite direction protesting strongly for the rash driving by the van

I was holding on to dear life when it happened.
"Crraack" came a sound as the van landed hard into a deep hole filled with water! then the vehicle lurched and swayed from left to right at dangerous angles"
"aaaaaah..." this time it was the driver..
" ஸ்டீரிங் ஓடிஞ்சிருச்சு போல இருக்கே ! ஐயோ காப்பாத்துங்க "
"The steering is not working! save us" he was screaming in tamil!

The whole bus was screaming now! I joined the party and the van seemed to have decided to steer itself. It was swaying from left to right as it dropped into and climbed every rut in the road! A hairpin bend was fast approaching and the van showed no sign of slowing down..
"ப்ரக்கே போடுயா" " slam the brakes! someone was screaming
By this time it was too late and the van rammed into the fender on the bend and the back wheel lifted on impact lurching over the fender and I could see the clouds and the rains streaming down into my eyes through the back window as the lightning flashed perhaps for the last time!
I hoped desperately for some miracle fully aware none was in store.
"Wham! Whoosh" the van was bounching and rolling over the cliffs
"aaaah" i felt the world darkening around me as a heavy pain landed on my head! and silence followed............................................................................


I woke up in a dazzle of light! lot of white clad figures were looking at me amids the glare! my face was wet from perspiration! Am I in hell or heaven?

"Slaap".. someone slapped me hard on my face and I rubbed my eyes to look clearly
"Sleeping in the class , idiot, I will fail you if I ever catch you sleeping again.. get out of my class" yelled Samuel master, the maths teacher..

I walked out of the class as the truth dawned on me... what a nightmare! I mused as I rested my head on the wall. outside the class before closing my eyes. God please give me a nice dream now...