What Could Possibly Go Wrong
By: Vishnu Paliwlal
Tags: Cycling, Teenagers, Parenting, Storytelling, Thriller

I certainly don’t know shit about psychology, but I am fairly certain of the existence of a specific characteristic ingrained in human behavior.

That specific characteristic being the compulsive need to do exactly what we have been told not to.

Through personal experience and a little inquiry here and there, I have come to the conclusion that most human beings get a sense of thrill from breaking the rules now and then. Another conclusion that drew from my inquiry was that almost everyone displays and feeds these tendencies in their teenage years.

High on hormones, swimming in adrenaline teenagers are usually impatient to get on with their best lives. These years are often accompanied by a fallacious sense of invulnerability. Following these biological indications we often unknowingly land ourselves in potentially hazardous situations which we usually escape unscathed, this fuels the feeling of invulnerability even more and gives birth to the need to outdo ourselves each time. Until one day something does happen and you're left dumbfounded.

My story starts with 2 friends who on one fine night decide to leave the comfort of their home at 11:30 pm one night to get a PlayStation game from a stranger who lived 2 kilometers away. They’re scared shitless, the roads are pretty much empty except for the occasional homeless man or the rickshaw puller going home after a tough day.

They make it to their destination, acquire the game from the complete stranger who they had met online, and communicated with only on text.

Good for them the seller was genuine and accomodating. On their way back they were chased by a pack of dogs but they somehow manage to escape without getting bit or injured.

This experience enabled them to develop the mental strength to sneak out of their homes and roam around on Delhi roads past midnight. A lifestyle involving minors roaming around on the streets of one of the most dangerous cities in the world is bound to end in disaster, yet somehow nothing happened to these two.

I mean sure, they were chased by a car one time and almost caught by their parents another time, but somehow they always managed to evade the possible consequences.

crime statistics for Delhi in 2020

Like a drug infests and infects the mind of an addict, the cost of euphoria never stays the same. Similarly, the thrill of a simple 2km walk on the streets near home doesn't provide that sense of independence and power.

The boys decide to one-up themselves by cycling to a 24 hr convenience store much further away from home on a daily basis beyond midnight.

The situation they put themselves in this time is far direr than the last time as they are riding bicycles on the main road which is infested with rash drivers, trucks, and criminals of all sorts.

24seven Rohini sector 7

After a hundred successful trips, even though they completely ignored their health, they came out unscathed and endured no physical damage.

Their feeling of invulnerability was like a raging fire in their hearts and unfortunately, the boys didn't stop here.

One fine day one of them suggested cycling all night across the city to meet a mutual friend who lived on the other side of the city.

So they told their parents they were sleeping over at each other’s houses and planned their departure.

Initially, they were slightly reluctant but they convinced each other by asking themselves “What could possibly go wrong?”.

They made an extensive list of all the situations they could encounter and took precautionary measures accordingly. So with pepper spray and pencils in their pockets, they departed around midnight.

On the day of their excursion, the boys decided to cycle across the city to a province(New Rajinder Nagar) 18 km away.

One of the boys was riding a cycle he borrowed from an acquaintance. Midway the boys got exhausted and stopped on the lonely roads a number of times before making it to their destination.

By the time they arrived at their destination, it had been more than around 2 hours and it was well past 1 in the morning.

Reaching their destination and meeting up with their third friend served as a major accomplishment for the 2 boys. So after uniting with the third member, the boys recklessly rode their bikes around the roads clicking photographs and jumping over locked gates.

All was going great before the 3rd boy got a call from his sister who had noticed his absence and threatened to report it to his parents if he didn't return as soon as possible.

The 3rd boy also realized that he had left the main door to his house unlocked in all the excitement.

At this point the boys got frantic, they started cycling at crazy speeds in order to avoid the disaster that had befallen them. Little did they know that they were walking into a disaster of exponentially greater magnitude.

At a T-point one of the boys failed to stop his cycle in time and collided perpendicularly with a car going at a hazardous pace. The sedan hit the front wheel of his cycle hurling him above the roof of the car landing behind the car. The cycle was shattered in 2 and the boy was lying on the ground.

The remaining 2 boys were left in sheer bewilderment watching their friend hurled 10 feet up in the air landing on the ground after 10 backflips.

the location of the accident

Much to the relief of the boys who had witnessed the accident, the victim got up on his own 2 feet before feelings of grief or fear could develop within the minds of his friends.

The driver ran away without sparing a minute and the victim’s shorts were drenched in blood and he was barely able to walk.

Unfortunately, the cycle that had been shattered into 2 pieces was the cycle that had been borrowed.

Thankfully, the boys weren’t far from the house of the 3rd boy and it was possible to make their way there on foot.

Upon reaching the house of the 3rd boy, all three of them had to sneak in clean and dress the wounds discard the bloody shorts, and make plans to return home before morning. And all this needed to be done in extreme silence as if too much noise was made, the 3rd boy’s parents would wake up and have a heart attack before making our lives miserable.

The injured boy pushed through the agonizing pain and somehow managed to borrow a pair of shorts from his friend's house and depart for home in an Uber at 5 am.

The boys made it back on time but this was not the end to their misery as the child who lost his cycle involved his father.

The owner of the cycle blackmailed the boys by threatening to go to their parents if they failed to repay the full price of the broken cycle which was more than 2 years old.

Even after a promise of full repayment the owner went through with his plan of informing the parents of the boys.

The boys somehow managed to escape with their lives.

But the hormone rush may have resulted in a fatality, which in turn would have ruined 3 lives.

Breaking the rules is important. But greater importance lies in knowing one’s boundaries.