When Life Makes Your Choice For You

A personal story of a near-death experience which altered the trajectory of my life.

There was a song playing in my car. The Corrs were singing to their lyrics from “Only When I Sleep”,

But it´s only when I sleep
See you in my dreams
Got me spinning round and round
Turning upside down

But it´s only when I sleep
And when I wake from slumber

That was the last thing I remember.

The impact woke me up. My head was spinning round and round. You know that feeling when you get abruptly interrupted from deep dreamy sleep, that’s how it felt. Only this time I was awakened in my car.

A few seconds passed, and the spinning came to a halt. There was a ringing in my ear. Everything looked blurry. My face felt weird. My tongue tasted flesh. The smell of burnt rubber and smoke crowded my senses.

My hands reached out and felt the roughness of the asphalt. I was in the driver's seat of a car that was slanted to one side, my side, that had been crushed to become one with the intercity highway.

I was on my way back from Bangalore city, a 70 kilometer mid-afternoon drive on December 3rd, 1999. The…