The encounter

The air crash investigation series from National Geographic is one of my favourites and I used to be in awe of how detectives analyse some of the worst disasters in aviation history from around the world - the causes ranged from as simple as excess baggage in the flight to the complicated terrorist attacks. The black box flight data recordings can survive any kind of fall from the sky to a dry land or even the mighty oceans. There are different  experts who are consulted to get vital clues and study the causes of the crash.

One of the main reasons for pooling in time, money and experts to find the cause of the crash is to prevent a repeat of the crash in the future and to make aviation travel safer, however there is another reason which is paramount, which is to give a closure to the trauma of the family and relatives who have lost their loved ones in the crash. 

There is an inherent human desire to find out the truth as much as possible on the cause of an incident so that justice is served.

June 17, 2010  is what I consider, with all my heart as the best day of my life since it was a battle between life and death. However I loved the way at how justice was served. Thinking of a simple fact that as a vulnerable cyclist from India, being run over by a local bus abroad in Europe. If you take a step back and think about it - is it not normal to think that a foreigner from India where the traffic is chaotic and where rules are often not followed would have been the cause of the accident? However the investigation of over 55 pages mentioned that the normal thought wasn’t true.

The expectation of justice was never to blame anyone since that’s the last thing you would want to do. In case of taking a blame, I would rather take in on myself. However the beauty by which you can handle the situation with grace, when you are not at fault and the forgiveness you can offer to cheer up the one who is at fault makes a lasting impression of love and grace which can change someone’s life. It was a joy to offer forgiveness when the bus owner met me at the hospital and it was a privilege to gift him a Bible. The outlook of life as I see it is that God is sovereign and in control meaning that nothing happens without him knowing, so that takes the burden off your mind and keeps it in peace. 

One of my posts “Rough roads are for tough men to make them come out stronger”, was actually  referring to another incident when I felt that justice was not served with false allegations written and signed by the clergy. The saddest thing is when you hardly have a chance to defend yourself and you are immediately framed that you are the culprit whereas it could actually not be true and it could also mean that there is some kind cover-up in the process. In an emotionally driven culture, tempers flare even at the mention of certain allegations and this many times are used to settle personal scores. 

One of the initial steps in my response was to remain focussed and not get distracted. My earliest analysis as the events started unfolding was that it was a spiritual warfare and I needed to fight to get back to normalcy. The events were only meant to get you distracted from your destiny and keep you fighting the wrong enemy. Initially I tried to come to terms with why each of the incidents that had happened - whether it was being run over by a bus or fighting a false allegation. When thinking of the latter one and trying to get bitter, I used to think of the former one and relativize that each happend in different countries and not one person in a remote settings was ever related to the other problem. 

It started getting worse when your relatives and friends start questioning on why these kind of bizarre things happen to you alone and not the others.

“My son asks me why these kind of bad things happen to good people?” asked one of my relatives and continued that he affirmed

“If such things happen, then there must not be any God” 

Since the same question was earlier posed to me during my accident, I had earlier tried to convince them through my accident recovery story of how God saved me. However this time the wounds were afresh and since I was trying hard to get up after a blow there was no strength to put my thought around this. Generally I give evidences to prove my point, but this time I couldn’t since I had so many unanswered myself.

“I am not God, so I am sorry I can’t help with the question” , was all I could offer since I was trying to comprehend the whole situation which was unfolding. 

Within less than a year, dad fell sick and I was completely exhausted to even get up set my mind to walk the difficult journey with him. I remember, crying -

“God, In all seriousness, dad would need to be in this world longer since it looks like I am unstable.” However the focus immediately was shifted completely to take care of him but with a heavy heart after fighting his earthly battle he went away to be with God.

One of the best things I had in this phase, was a job which was just 200 meters away from home. I grieved dad’s loss with mom and looked for every coffee break and lunch time opportunity to be with her. The multitude of questions were still bombarding my mind and I was trying to make sense of it all. One of the biggest struggles was whetherI needed to make a change in my character and beliefs in order to comprehend the blows one after another from different people involved in personal, official and religious space. There was however some consolation from friends inside and outside the country who felt that I shouldn’t change but still there was a longing for a divine encounter.

Being fragile, I avoided meeting people and limited myself to maintaining a very closed group. However on one occasion I had to go to the neighbouring area to pay maintenance dues in the office and after paying the fees I was waiting at the bus stop to come back home. The bus stop was close to a wine shop and there was a man who was drunk and having a merry time, all by himself. 

Suddenly out of nowhere, was a screeching sound and a pillion driver was thrown off the motorcycle and he landed on the main road with a broken leg. Luckily, since there was not much of traffic on the busy road, we gently pulled the victim off the road to the bus stop and made him lie on the pedestrian pavement. After making him feel comfortable, I called the ambulance and as the details of the accident spot was being shared, the drunk man came to enquire about the victim.

I quickly went back to the spot where the accident victim was lying.

“Can you make him drink water ?” asked the man mumbling to me.

“He is fine”, I replied hesitantly.

“Did you call the ambulance?”, he asked.

“I did, and they are coming”, I responded.

“Did you look at his leg which is broken ?” he questioned and bent down to point to the broken leg and was about to touch the wound.

At this point being unhappy, I admonished the drunk man to leave the victim alone to which he surprisingly apologised and backed off.

Once the ambulance came and as I was helping the accident victim inside, out of nowhere came came a small crowd, among which was the assistant of the local church. He questioned me personally as to what I was doing there.

On hearing the question, the drunk gentleman standing nearby pitched in and answered him mentioning the history of events that had occurred and added -

“He was the one who pulled him from the road, did everything for the victim and rescued him” in his drunken tone.

These words meant a lot to me since the assistant of the local church was the very same person who had handed over the letter to us with false allegations signed by the head clergy of another church. 

That was a very uncomfortable situation for the assistant since the drunk gentleman had a very different opinion on me than the head clergy.  It was a shocking reminder that the drunk gentleman was speaking the truth in contrast to the letter signed by the head clergy. 

It was such a humbling experience and my heart was full of joy going home. It was an insignificant incident but to me personally, it was an appointment at the right time when I needed the encouragement to get up, dust the mud off myself and move forward. It looked like a lot of questions lingering in me was not valid anymore. The encounter was divine.

Jesus was moved with compassion whenever he saw the people who were in need to be rescued but he was completely against the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. He called them whitewashed tombs, meaning they looked  clean on the outside but on the inside were dead men’s bones and everything unclean, a very shocking statement. 

One clear reminder was that, the same drunk people whom the religious people compare, to make themselves feel better was shown in a different light. Jesus, on the other hand, the friend of sinners, goes into their lives and takes away their darkness by His light. He was more against people who were drunk with power thereby offending people but was merciful to sinners who came to him with a broken heart.