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Big breaking news often revolves around calamities and disasters. But when a person helps over 50 people from getting burnt, isn’t it a bigger breaking news? Former Delhi cricketer Mohan Chaturvedi emerged a hero as his quick thinking and presence of mind, which was honed by years of practice as a cricketer, helped him to pull the passengers out of the bus at a busy ITO junction at 8.30 pm on Wednesday.
As he emerged of the metro station and was heading towards his office, he saw smoke coming out of a DTC air-condition bus from the back portion of the public transport. A few that gathered there tried to figure out what was happening while over 50 people were trying to find ways of getting out of the bus even as they were being suffocated by the smoke. The doors had got locked, the air conditioners had stopped working and smoke was coming out of the vents. Chaturvedi’s presence of mind saved the lives of the passengers.
“I saw the smoke and oil dripping from the back portion of the bus and realized that there was something wrong. I saw the passengers trying their best to get out of the bus but they couldn’t. That is because the doors got locked. Even the bus conductor and driver were helpless. I saw the distressed condition and started slapping the door vigorously and somehow managed to open the locked door to some degree and pulled out those passengers one after the other,” a proud Chaturvedi told CricBlogger.
Soon after the passengers got out, the bus caught fire. Chaturvedi had singlehandedly rescued all the passengers. He narrated the tale to his colleagues as he still couldn’t believe what had just happened. “My cricketing skills helped actually,” Chaturvedi said while narrating the whole incident. “All those catches and stumpings really came of good use for those passengers,” he said.
With everyone carrying a smartphone and developing a habit of capturing moments, no one, however, could capture this rescue act “Some suggested to make a video of the whole incident. But my focus was not to capturing the event on any phone. My focus was to save lives, which I could do today,” Chaturvedi said with simmering emotions.
