The gunshot

It was May 10, 2017. I had come back from the last wedding reception at my In Law's place in Pantnagar on May 8. Had joined office on May 9. Was so engrossed for all the planning related to my upcoming vacation with my wife in Switzerland [June 18-28].  On May 10, I left office around 830 pm. I recalled that I didn't have milk at home. I thought to catch up on grocery shopping on way to home.

I reached Greater Noida around 910 pm. I stopped at Honey Money Top. It is a good grocery store [at least in my opinion till that fateful day]. There were large number of cars parked on the roadside. Busy day I thought. I kept on driving till I found a vacant spot to park my car. There was one more car after mine. It was a bit away from the market and there was less light on that spot. I walked down to the store. There was a Juice stall before the store. I felt like having a mango shake. I asked the guy if he could make a shake for me. But he was busy serving another customer. So I said, I would come back and went to the grocery store. I bought the necessary stuff. I loaded my PayTM account with necessary cash. I paid by PayTM on the store. I left couple of whatsapp messages. I came down. Went to the Juice stall again. He was free by then. I asked him to prepare a small Mango juice of 30 Rs. It was quite filling. I then started walking towards my car. The area was still quite populated with lots of cars on the road. I noticed two guys standing in front of the last car [The one next to me]. They were talking in themselves. I silently walked towards my car. I have this principled habit of avoiding any kind of small talk or engagement with people I don't know. As I was walking to the trunk of my car, I felt they looked at me. I ignored their attention. I opened the trunk. Put the grocery inside. Locked it. I went to the driving seat. Opened the door by pressing the button on the door handle. The door flung open. I sat down comfortably on the driving seat. The door was still open. And then it happened.

One guy came to me. Held the door. Showed me a gun.  He said, see this, it is a gun. He indicated that he wanted the car. It seemed like a country made pistol. I think it was of black color and small size. I don't know why, but I didn't get afraid at all after seeing the gun. I got massively agitated. I stood up out of the car and pushed him back. I said something of the tone as to how dare he take my car from me.  I am not sure why, but he immediately fired the gun. May be cause I was of larger frame than him and he felt I might overpower him. It could be anything, I would never know.  The gunshot was quite noisy. I guess all the people in the market could hear it. This made them afraid. They just ran away immediately. They didn't get my car. They didn't take my phone (which was still in my hand). They didn't take my wallet which was in a hand bag I was wearing by my neck. They didn't get my laptop which was in the car's trunk. The laptop bag also contained my wife's and my passports along with all the documents for the VISA application. They didn't get anything. They just got afraid and ran away.

And then I realized, I had been shot. The blood was spilling out of my body. I felt like I was realizing one of the gory scenes of series like Game of Thrones. As the blood spilled, my body started weakening and I fell down on the road.  Later, I got to know that the bullet went through my jaws and got stuck in neck. I also learned later that my right ankle also got multiple fractures possibly during the process of falling down. My voice got corrupted immediately [I can now realize it was because my left jaw was shattered]. With whatever voice I had, I started crying for help. I tried to search for my mobile, My body couldn't lift itself. So I was just using my hands around to search for it. I found it. I tried to use the fingers and attempt the fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone. Due to dust, some fingers were not working.

The first person, who came within a minute [probably the owner of the car next to me], asked what happened. I explained, but he left with his car. After that nobody was noticing me for next few minutes.I started losing hope as well as consciousness. My cries for help stopped as I felt there is no point. I started feeling, it is the end of the world for me. I started thinking of all the plans I had for future and how they were all coming to end just at that time and that place in front of my eyes. I wondered, that I hadn't given all the details of my savings and other investments to my near and dear ones. They would have difficult time in locating all of them. I was still conscious though my senses were getting dimmer.

Fortunately, an angel came after a few minutes. He talked to me, understood the situation, brought in some more people, picked me up, got me placed in my car and drove me to the nearest hospital. He managed to access my phone and call my friend and my wife. They started immediately from Noida and Gurgaon. They brought along all the help. My brother in law came along. My wife's uncle joined.  Some of her friends came along My Managing Director was informed. He came before midnight. I had started feeling I would get saved. I was still conscious and was talking. Police came along within half an hour I guess to the Yatharth hospital, Greater Noida. Since I was still talking, they took my statement. The hospital staff carefully took all my belongings and got them submitted at reception in order to save it from getting into Police custody unnecessarily. But Police did take the car along with them (including all the grocery and my laptop bag which was in the back of the car).

From there I was transferred to the bigger Yatharth hospital in Noida. My wife joined there. I was so so relieved to see her by my side at that time. At the same time, I was crying from inside so much after seeing her as I had ended up messing up all our plans so early in our marriage. She handled the situation that night with so much courage and conviction, and without any panic, that made all the difference on that fateful night. Dr Kapil Tyagi, MD of the hospital, personally took over the case. He called all the surgeons around and managed to get an army of six surgeons in place by midnight. I went through multiple X Rays and CT scans. I vividly remember passing through them. I had to wait a while before getting moved to OT. I was patiently waiting and talking little bit to the nursing staff present around me. Finally, they moved me to OT. I felt the anesthesia being administered to me. I guess a few minutes after that, I passed out.

A six hour surgery was conducted overnight. I got back into senses in the morning. I realized I was in ICU. It was not much pain at that time [I think I was on an overdose of pain killers], but my body was pretty much crippled. My right leg had a raw plaster. My neck had multiple stitches. My face was massively swelled. My neck couldn't move. I couldn't sit down. I couldn't turn around my body. I felt that I could move my left leg and my both hands. That was comforting.

Later the doctors came around 9 am. They explained to me how I was quite lucky to have survived a gunshot wound in face without any significant injury. The bullet had stayed just a few millimeters away from critical nerves. It would take months but I would recover.

As my family and friends started trickling in, I kept crying to see each face. I guess in last 10 years, I have never really shed tears by myself. On May 11, on seeing every face, my tears kept rolling down non stop.


I guess, this is long enough post already. Rest later.