That day I had gone to my work spot in the Air Force unit at a remote northeastern region during the early nineteen seventies by my bicycle since I had left my scooter in a garage for its regular servicing.
It was a late vespertine hour when choosing a not-so-familiar shortcut outside the Air Force station I started riding my bicycle on it to get back home before nightfall but fate willing otherwise it grew dark sooner than expected. When I was hardly halfway through the concrete short route, alas! I fell along with my cycle down into a trench dug right across the road to its full breadth. Within a wink of an eye I was standing in its depths rubbing my eyes as mud had slathered my body cap-a-pie blurring my vision. Carrying my cycle I somehow managed to scramble to an edge of the trench and get out of it. In a topsy-turvy state I even forgot the loss of my watch that might have dropped into the trench appearing not less than six feet deep in the dim light of the crescent moon.
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As I stood looking blearily around, luck smiled upon me bringing into my sight an army barracks nearby. One of the army personnel in the barracks noticing my miserable condition led me to the veranda and offered me a jug of water for washing my mug and drinking. I gave him a brief account of my terrific fall into the trench on the road beside.
One of the handful of men in the barracks soon brought me the first aid box from inside and gently bandaged the abrasions on my knees and elbows. Another one recounted the untold ordeal a couple suffered before two or three days falling into the same trench together with a cycle. His account of the other similar incident at the same spot kept me aware that the trench had been in the same perilous condition at least for days. As I got ready to take leave of them one among them showed me the safe route from there to our quarters. Expressing my gratitude for their hospitality and singular kindness in treating my wounds with the first aid, I departed on my cycle.
No sooner did I reach my house than my missus opened the door and stood paralyzed with shock for a while. Collecting herself however after a moment she asked me in a trembling voice all that befell me enroute. Ambling into the hall and slumping in a chair I gave her an exhaustive account of all that occurred to me. Tears welling up her eyes the grief-stricken lady told me that the unprecedented drop of the wick from the oil lamp beside the idol of Goddess, Lakshmi in the Pooja room and the resultant burning of the silk cloth spread under it occurring at almost the time of my devastating fall into the trench foreboded that some untoward incident would be impending upon me. Consoling her with soothing words and thanking the Gods and Goddesses of our religion I swore her off I would never follow any unfamiliar shortcut after dusk irrespective of the urgency of the situation.
