A Kolhapur man’s posthumous comeback after a jolt on the road is now a viral lesson in unexpected motivation. Sometimes, the only life coach you need is a civic engineering oversight.
A curious old news snippet from last year has taken new life on social media, quite like its subject. The story, now doing the rounds again with breathless captions and gasping emojis, features a 65-year-old man from Kolhapur who was declared dead by a hospital, bundled off for cremation, and then… woke up when the ambulance hit a speed bump.
Yes. A speed bump. The same civic fixture we normally associate with spilled coffee, backaches, and the occasional traffic cop crouching behind it with a radar gun. But in this case, it served as a defibrillator with asphalt underpinnings.
Stirred back to life by a jolt
Pandurang Ulpe, our accidental Phoenix, was reportedly stirred back to life by the jolt. The funeral plans were paused, the ambulance reversed, and he was rushed back to the hospital, which, in a rare plot twist, now found him alive. Angioplasty followed. He recovered. Walked out. Presumably gave the speed bump a grateful nod.
Now, while the quotes below are entirely imagined – because Ulpe has wisely chosen to stay off X and Instagram – one cannot help but picture the bewildered reactions.
‘We were halfway through chanting Ram naam satya hai,’ said a fictitious cousin, ‘and then he sits up like he is late for tea. At first, we thought it was indigestion. Turns out it was resurrection.’
Another relative (also fictional) added, ‘Next time someone says ‘over my dead body,’ we are checking twice.’
Designed to wake us up
But beyond the comic value, there is a metaphor here trying very hard to be noticed. Speed bumps, literal or metaphorical, are usually designed to slow us down. But sometimes, they wake us up. Sometimes, we are cruising along – mentally dead to the world, exhausted, disengaged, halfway to burnout – and it takes a bump to remind us we are alive. A bad day. A rejection. A power cut. Or, in Ulpe’s case, an enthusiastic road elevation.
Now, you might be thinking, ‘Sure, it was a bump on the road. But isn’t that what life is about? Getting jolted every once in a while?”’ And here is the profound takeaway: just like Ulpe, we too need our metaphorical speed bumps.
Whether it is a sudden job loss, a project that goes wrong, or a terrible Wi-Fi connection that forces us to reconnect with real life, life has a way of bumping us forward. Those speed bumps slow us down temporarily, yes, but they also remind us that we are alive. They give us that shake-up, that moment of clarity, that we didn’t even know we needed.
Where is my speed-breaker?
For those still questioning if a bump in the road can change everything, consider this: If it works for Pandurang, it could work for you. Maybe your procrastination isn’t due to laziness. Maybe, just like Ulpe, you’re just waiting for that jolt to get you moving.
Perhaps a speed bump in your life isn’t a curse – it is a sign that you are on the road to something better, more meaningful, more alive. So the next time you are stuck in a rut, staring at a blank screen or avoiding a task with the grace of a couch potato, ask yourself: Where is my speed bump?
So if you are feeling stuck, sluggish, or downright zombified, do not wait for a TED Talk or a life coach. Just look around. Your speed bump may already be approaching – uninvited, inconvenient, and potentially life-affirming.
And to the civic body that designed that particular speed-breaker, you may have just saved a life. Not through healthcare, not through policy – but through pure, bone-rattling geometry. Sometimes, a little jolt is all it takes. Just ask Ulpe if he is not too busy avoiding potholes now.
