Traffic Premonitions

Exactly a year ago, an ambulance in Bangalore hit several people. The next day I was driving my scooter on the road besides an ambulance. The sight of the ambulance reminded me of the news story and I thought to myself, “it could happen to me, I should be careful.” We were stopped at a traffic signal, and I was lost in thoughts about the news. The signal turned green, we started moving, the ambulance took a sharp turn, and ran into me.

Thankfully, both of us hit the brakes quite hard and the collision was minor. I got a severe whiplash from the sudden stop, and had to suffer through a backache for the next three months. Later I came to know that I had Covid-19 at the time I was driving, and that was probably why I wasn’t careful enough. In a strange way, the backache caused me to take bed rest for the next few weeks, and that helped me recover better from Covid.

Afterward, I remember feeling quite weirded out by the strange incident, and the premonition I had couple of seconds before. But the feeling faded away over time. I didn’t think much about it, until today.

While I was driving my scooter today to the Indieweb Club Bangalore meetup, I was again lost in thoughts. I had not had enough sleep last night and felt less aware of my surroundings than usual. On a traffic stop, I saw some people jump the red light, as probably thousand of people do every day in Bangalore without a thought. A thought cross my mind, “I should be careful to not do that and get caught by the traffic police.” No points for guessing what happened in the next few seconds.

I RAN A RED SIGNAL! I didn’t even realize it till the cops stopped me. I was so shaken by my thoughts becoming reality so suddenly, for a minute I felt like it was all happening in my head. It was a very surreal feeling. I actually tried to shake myself awake. After a few seconds, I registered that what was happening was indeed real. In my defense, that traffic signal had been disabled for last many months, and the sun was so bright I couldn’t see the signal lights. And so couldn’t many other people who jumped the signal along with me and were caught by the cops. I silently waited in the queue for a while and paid the fine.

I don’t know what I should take from these traffic premonitions I’ve had over the last year. Maybe I should be more attentive to what my gut tells me. Maybe I shouldn’t drive when I’m not up to full awareness. I don’t know what the lesson is, but today’s occurrence has shaken me in a very mysterious way.

I wrote this post during our local Indieweb club meeting.

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