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Administrative Officer at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic
Research at Kalpakkam I had thought of taking some vacation
around June 1982.I planned a trip by my car to see temples and
other tourist spots like waterfalls, etc’ I gathered around me my
wife and our two children aged 6 and two, and my old mother,
grandmother, elder sister and younger brother in addition to my
man Friday Rajaram, in all some seven adults and two children. I
took upon me the task of driving the Fiat car of 1974 vintage. The
route to be followed was after leaving Chingleput to take the NH
49 touching enroute Trichy, Madurai, Tirunelveli before turning
west to Trivandrum, Kottayam, Kumuli and take the Cumbum
valley to return to Chennai via Madurai.
We wanted to worship at Sri Nindra Nambi Perumal and also seek
the blessings of the Jeer at Nanguneri.After this was over we were
returning to the main road. The roads in these parts were narrow
and several feet higher than the surrounding paddy fields.
Suddenly as if from nowhere I was confronted with the task of
negotiating a huge truck coming from the opposite direction
sharing a major portion of the already narrow road. I tried to
maneuver the car to the left side of the road as much as space
would permit .The truck was mercilessly and menacingly coming
towards me leaving hardly a foot or so free space between my car
and the truck. The car could no more sidle up on the edge of the
road lest it should slip and fall down on the paddy field some 10
or 15 feet down below. The truck was in haste and pulled past my
car with a heavy thud due to its impact on my car’s door.
Fortunately the menace was over leaving a prominent scar besides
wrenching in the process my front door! It was the usual hit and
run affair. All my co-passengers felt they had a narrow escape and
were lucky to avoid the jaws of death!
Food poisoning incident of 1986:
The last incident related to my sickness in 1986.I planned to take
my family from Chennai to Delhi after my transfer from
Hyderabad. I had to reach Chennai via Bangalore and as the
arrangement was a last minute one I had to chose travel by train
from Bangalore. I took my dinner in the vegetarian restaurant on
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