This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 7; the seventh edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

“Come on Sam! You can just one point!” his team-mates were cheering him but I wanted him to loose. Sameer Arora aka Sam as he liked to call himself. Sam was the semi-finalist the year before whereas Srinu his opponent was an underdog. I was supporting Srinu not only because he was from our batch and we practiced together but we didn’t want that arrogant Sam to win. So we were giving experts tips to Srinu as to How to overcome Sam and I sent a silent prayer to favour Srinu.  That day for a change God had listened to me. Srinu had won the match and went onto quarter-finals. We celebrated with strawberry juice. Oh I’ll never forget the look on Sam’s face.

But that was all a year back. Today an email from HR left me aghast. It said

“Colleagues,

It is with deep regret that we inform you about the sad demise of our colleague Sameer Arora, in a tragic road accident on Saturday.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.

Let us observe two minutes silence at 3.00pm today as a mark of respect to the departed soul.

We pray to the Almighty to give his family courage and strength to overcome this grief. May his soul rest in peace.”

I rushed to his project and found his photo on his cubicle and his bereaved team-mates narrated that Sameer was returning from a party that night and he had his helmet on and had stopped at a signal. A little girl had smiled and waved at him from a neighbouring car and he had taken off his helmet to talk to the little one. Just then a speeding SUV with drunken driver on the wheel lost control of the vehicle and knocked Sameer down fatally. After listening to this tale a lot What Ifs came to  mind but the truth is Sameer is no more with us.

Every year thousands of people die on roads due to drunken driving. We have stringent rules in place but unless we ourselves do not follow the rules we will have to come face to face with such ugly What Ifs.

This post is based on true events and last week I have lost someone I knew. The reason why I replaced the original post for blog-a-ton is more people will read this and would request you to spread the message.

PS: Though this one based on true events names and other details have been changed for privacy purpose.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton and links to their respective posts can be checked here. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.