Anyways, coming back to the post, we started back to home at around 5:30- we know we had not a long drive ahead and also we had planned to come down to Saravanabhavan for dinner and for early bed!- as things would happen, we lost our way in 202- we went round and round in 202, unable to get the bearings- sadly for me, iPhone was also not of great help, as it kept giving some weird error messages in the maps. Somehow, we trusted our instincts to drive North and were really happy to see I287- following the same logic and forgetting that we drove on I287N to reach this place and thinking we need to go north to reach home, we started on I287N..the fact dawned on us, as we saw the exits increasing in their numbers rather than reducing...so had to take a detour and come back again to join I287S- but then it was already 4 miles since we missed our path...so that makes it 8 miles of round about route..anyways, cursing everything, I took the next exit to join back on I287S.

When I joined the interstate, I could feel the car was wobbling a bit and was running between lanes and the steering was a bit hard to handle- but I thought it was more to do with my speed rather than anything else..we would have gotten some 10 minutes into the highway, when out of the blue, suddenly there was a huge THUD sound and nothing was visible in the front..nor could I see anything in the rear view mirror..for a second or so, I could not make out what has happened..all I know/hear was the rumbling of the motor against the roar of the traffic outside..but the car was still running at 70-75MPH- as I hadn't slowed down or applied brakes..sensing trouble at the front, I put on the parking lights and was about to pull over to the right[as usual, I was on the left lane], when the dreaded 18-Wheeler whisked past me with a loud horn...I hadn't feared for my life ever as I did then- it was a terrible. But still, I hadn't figured out what has happened.

After letting the truck pass, and steering the car out to the shoulder, I came out without even switching off the car, only to see a gapping opening in the place of the bonnet and the bonnet perched atop the windshield. Mortified seeing at the way the bonnet has come to, I went back to switch the engine off and then came back to see the bonnet with a big dent running through its entire breadth. The force of the wind was such that, it has pried open the bonnet and had left a good dent on the roof too. More than the dent on the bonnet and the roof, the worst part was the condition of the windshield. The windshield had been completely smashed and there were pieces of glass inside the car. The rearview mirror has got detached from the windshield and had been thrown onto the rear seat. Luckily it didnt strike either me or my colleague.

I had to sit on top the bonnet and jump over it, to get it back to lock position and started back on the way. For some 10 minutes after this, I was driving on the shoulder itself- didnt have the courage to drive on the highway with a broken windshield and no rear view mirror. But after sometime, I was able to regain my confidence and started driving on the road- needless to say, was not clocking anything more than 40 MPH. It took us nearly an hour to reach home- but the wind has already created havoc everywhere. There were lots of fallen trees and my friends place was out of power for atleast 4 Hours.

I think this was for once a daring and a drastic experience for me- now read my opening lines- so, why do we live? Is it that we are afraid of death or we are fond of living?