Ever wondered how much strength a can of Pringles chips might be having? About a foot tall and made of cardboardish material, it is good enough to hold the fragile chips intact stacked over one other. Designed to protect the contents within, from a fall may be, but never thought it would be that good to act as a shield against a powerful kick.
This is again during one of my London visits for leisure. I used to make use of the London tube network heavily to hop-n-off while doing the site seeing or visiting places of my interest. Once while on-board a tube train, I was a standing commutator and I had one Afro guy seated right in front of me. I had to get down in couple of stations away so was in my own mood. Couple of times the Afro guy happened to push me aside and asked me to shift aside. It took me a while to notice that I was blocking a "scenic view" of one of the female commutator seated across. From his overall behavior, I could make out that the guy was certainly in "high" spirits. The train was quite crowded even on a weekend, and I was bit irritated by that person's constant nudges to push me aside. I sort off acted adamantly too, and maintained my position and composure. While getting off on my next station, he gave me a cold stare, so I gave him back a look of what a wierdo he is. As I alighted and started to walk, before I could realize and react to approaching running footsteps, I felt a big strong thud on my back and I was floored. Before even realizing what had happened, I just saw the Afro guy running back and sneaking in to the train, just in time before the doors closing. This whole incident happened within a few seconds (Usually the doors stay open for 12-20 seconds max). As usual the Brits around or other guys were shaken and no body even came to help me gather on feet. One lady just asked me if I was OK and narrated back that how the Afro guy jumped out of the train and in full speed ran towards me and kick me hard on my back. With God's grace, I was back on feet and apart from the shock impact nothing major. People around were curious as to what saved my back from that strong kick. I had a sack on my back and a can of Pringles chips inside the sack that had taken the full blow. The cardboardish can had sustained minor wrinkles and slight bend, but had protected my Spine. Commuters around gave a wry smile after finding what saved me.
We later on went on to watch the Science museum and at the entrance itself saw a huge skeleton (replica of original Dippy skeleton) from a dinosaur family preserved and on display in the museum. My eyes followed the skeleton's spine line and muttered to self, buddy mine got preserved today as well.
I once again pulled back the Pringles can out of my sack, hold it in my hands and then I opened it. To my surprise, most of the chips within were intact as well... Hats off to the team who had designed the can, no wonder those fragile chips stay intact.
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