Of fate and close calls ...

I started following the TV series Tru’ Calling recently. It’s about a girl who gets requests from “dead” people to save them. As their fate is not up yet, she is able to relive the day of their “deaths” and prevent that from happening. It’s an interesting premise and it got me thinking “what if”… We are all familiar with the saying, “a cat has nine lives”. But, have you ever wondered how many lives a human has before he meets his Maker?

Morbid thought? I think not. With the number of disasters ~ natural or man-made ~ occurring so frequently lately, this is worth a blog. After all, someone once said, the only certainty in life is death and taxes. We have read accounts of people who by chance/ fate escaped death in the 911 incident, and those who survived the tsunami that killed thousands of people on December 26th last year, and the recent bombings in London. I bet there are more accounts of close calls; which brings us to the subject of fate? Do you believe in it?

An event that occurred in the year 1999 has made a firm believer out of me. I was backpacking in New Zealand then. Had a couple of European travelling companions but we parted ways somewhere in Franz Josef and tentatively agreed to meet again in Queenstown. As events would have it, we did meet again in Queenstown while I was signing up for the 3pm jet boating session. My travelling companions urged me to change the session to 2pm as they have already signed up for that. Change it, I did.

Alas! … the guide of the jet boat lost control of the boat (he claimed later that there was a mechanical failure) and the boat hit the walls of the cliff and capsized! I can’t remember the exact chain of events as it all happened in a split second. When I “awake” from the shock, I realised I couldn’t move my legs as there was absolutely no feeling in them. Fortunately, it was merely extremely deep bruising but it took me four months to fully recover. But that incident claimed one life ~ that of a newly wed Japanese guy who was sitting two rows behind me at the opposite end of the boat.

My point is that it was fate that had me joining the 2pm jet boat session. If I had stuck to the 3pm session which I originally signed up, I would have been safe for it was cancelled after this incident. It was a close call too as the jet boat could have very well hit at my end of boat.

Looking back, I can recall a few vivid close calls in my life. In 1998, I was scuba diving at one of the dive sites in Sipadan Island; which is well known for its cross currents. While diving, the current suddenly pushed me downwards at a fast pace. I lost sight of my buddy but luckily for me, I saw (or thought I saw) the Danish guys (who was in the same diving group as us) further ahead of me. I chased after them but they seemed to be always just ahead of me. Finally I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw that one of the Danish guys was right behind me. He indicated that I should follow him and surface; which I did.

I was later told that:
* the Danish guys were never in front of me.
* the dive master gave chase but he couldn’t catch up with me as I was going downward too fast.
* my buddy was above me, but I could not see her at all.
* I was beyond the accepted level for recreational diving which has a limit of 100 feet below sea level.
* I had all the signs of being hit by nitrogen narcosis as I was hallucinating.

I also made several mistakes i.e. I dived down further instead of surfacing after I lost my buddy and my bearings. (First rule of diving is you surface when this happens!) The second mistake was that I kept chasing after the Danish guys as I imagined they had gone lower. I didn’t realise that I had such a close call until much later.

Now, if you think that the reason I have all these close calls is because I do dangerous activities, the next incident would negate this theory. In 2002, I had to make a trip to Ipoh for training. My colleague left earlier and thus, I had to drive back to KL on my own. I have done this route a hundred times and more as my hometown is near Ipoh. But that particular day, I was extremely tired and sleepy. I was planning to pull over to the next rest house but it was a long way away. I did not want to stop in the middle of nowhere as I have heard that robbers prey on lone drivers on that stretch of highway. So, I put on some upbeat music and increased the volume; all the while trying to keep my eyes open.

I must have fallen asleep with my eyes open as the next thing I knew, my heart started pumping extremely fast suddenly and I gained awareness in time to see my car hurtling straight towards a divider. Luckily I managed to swerve in time and also luckily the road was clear of cars as I could have hit other cars when I did my gut reaction swerve. I was so shaken but guess what? Just a kilometre or more away from that incident was the turn off to the rest house. I was shaking so hard that I had to stop and have a cup of coffee and forty winks. I called a friend too to relate the incident and to regain calmness and confidence to drive back the rest of the way.

Call it kismet, fate, divine intervention … whatever it is, I survived! So, how many more close calls do I get? Is there a quota to these things? What do you think?