Team-BHP - Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road

Happened yesterday, I parked my car at office MLCP and was walking towards the office (Its a 10 minute walk) and as I was near the office, I hear an auto driver tell one of the security guards that someone has dropped their access cards with some keys on the road a little back. I continued walking all the way thinking o how careless can someone be that they did not even realize they dropped their card and as soon as I enter the office, I realized that the careless guy was no one else but me. My retractor was broken and that's how I lost it.

I went back to the security guy, asked him about the card and he said he would get it and the poor guy walked about 10 minutes to get it from his supervisor. All in all, a very humble experience for me and also a lesson that before I think of someone else as being careless, one should always reflect upon self.

This happened a couple of years ago.

Now and then, when my wife is in a hurry/panic, she will take the spare car key and drop it in her handbag. Led to a situation where if you needed to find both keys, they were both in her handbag.

One day, she went to an office for a meeting and returned in a hurry. Sometime after that, we searched high and low for the spare key and it was nowhere to be found.

6 months later she visits the office again and is presented with her key! As parking was tight in that office, she was asked to leave the key in the office. Madam walked out and used her other key to drive off. The office first thought the car had got stolen until the security person swore that she had driven off.

Now the spare key cannot be accessed so easily!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 3492235)

Wow! While indeed funny, it could have been a lot more serious! Since the guard had the keys, if somehow he got hold of the address, the car could have simply been driven away! And not necessarily from home, but anywhere close you parked the car. :Shockked:

Are you planning to change the locks since its been more than 6 months the key was with some other person?

Ajmat's post reminds me of an extremely embarrassing moment in my life.

It happened some 7 years ago. Our office had cab facility but I used to drive as I felt that it saved time. Being pre-recession days, our company allowed us to use the cab service based on requirement so, if I did an extended shift I could travel by cab. Due to a project with stringent timelines, I worked an entire week from 12 PM to 5 AM, the regular shift was 12 PM to 10 PM. After working for such long hours along with driving (taking the cab would have meant 2 additional hours of traveling), I was extremely tired on Friday. At 9.45 PM, my manager asked me to leave as he thought I was nearing a burnout and advised me to be more careful with my health (coincidentally, the deliverable was also almost complete). I went down stairs to leave for the day. I saw 3 of my friends who stayed nearby waiting in a cab. I completely forgot that I had come in my car and boarded the cab. We were almost about to reach home when I realised that I had the keys in my pocket. :Shockked: Everyone in the cab except me, had a good laugh. I then asked the cabbie if he will be returning to office after dropping all of us. He said, he has another pick-up after us but there's only one person so, he can pick me up at 3 AM. He dropped me home and I told mom and dad that I forgot the car outside my office. People that work in Gurgaon will agree that getting a promotion is easier than getting a parking spot inside the building. Dad was of the opinion that I should go next morning with his chauffeur and bring it back however, I just couldn't relax with my car parked outside a dhaba in Gurgaon. The cabbie picked me and I reached office at around 4.00 AM. It seemed as if my car was complaining "How could you leave me here?" :D

A similar incident happened to my colleague. She was a regular user of our organizations bus service and she bought a car and brought it office. Whole leaving she along with the others girls as usual chatting got into the bis and went home. In the bus they decided to go shopping. She reached late and slept. I used to work early mornings for our eastern clients. I got a call from her in the morning around 7 asking me how to lodge a police complaint. I enquired what happened and she said her new car was stolen. She has the keys but the car could not be seen from her balcony. How could it be when I could see it from my office window in the parking.

A couple of friends and myself - we were on a flash week-end joy trip from Bangalore to Pune a good 8 years back. We were especially keen on driving through the tunnels on the Pune-Bombay expressway (is that the one?). The car we were in was a Fiat Petra 1.6 with a K&N air filter, so we were eager to hear it roar in the tunnels.

Anyway, we were driving at triple digit speeds in the morning hours and as we entered the first tunnel, our excitement knew no bounds. We were inside in a flash and suddenly both the driver and myself upfront couldn't see anything! I mean we were blind! Everything was dark and we were gunning the accelerator! Both of us started screaming, saying OMG!!! we can't see! We can't see! We switched on the headlights, but still couldn't make out anything!

And then the guys at the rear asked us to get our frickin sunglasses off.

A funny incident happened to me today. I stopped at a signal and a middle aged person with a full beard/moustache came next to me on a pink Scooty. While waiting for the signal to turn green, I casually glanced at his Scooty and was astounded to see a smiling face of a lady on his left rear view mirror. Did a double take and then suddenly like a bolt it hit me. He had pasted a photo/sticker of a lady on his left mirror!! rl:

I had a good laugh at this. An innovative idea, (if you want to put a photo of your favourite lady!) but a crazy one, that defeats the very purpose of a rear view mirror!

P.S: that photo could be of his wife! :D

A few years back, we were on our way to my native(Nagercoil), from Bangalore. We started late(around 3pm), and had just passed Vallioor at about 9:30pm. There were no cars in-front of us for some good 100 meters. Suddenly, the driver of a van on the opposite lane shooed us to slow down and gesturing something. Neither of us could understand. But we decided to slow down a bit.
About 10 seconds later, we got to know why. A towering Elephant running towards us down the middle of the road. Hell!
Shock and fear eating me, I couldn't think of what to do next. My wife was already in tears. Looking back, there were no vehicles behind us, so we immediately took a u-turn. Luckily, there was a break in the median in a few meters.
On the other side now, there was a temple, where I suggested we stop and go in for safety-just in case. However, my wife would have none of it. She told me to drive all the way back to Tirunelveli. Seeing her state of despair, I couldn't convince her any longer.
Booked a hotel in Tirunelveli and passed the night there.

Till now, she is scared of what could have happened if we had only gone a few paces closer.

Want to report a funny incident here which happened during my Shirdi trip:

After night Sai baba Darshan had a good satisfied sleep. After all i drove down all the way from Bangalore only for this moment. Morning after getting up had a good maharashtrian breakfast at local joints around the hotel i stayed. Checked out around 9 AM and started driving towards Pune taking the Nagar (Ahmednagar) route. when i was nearing a town called Rahuri was stopped by traffic police for driving a non-MH registered car in Maharashtra. Along with me i can see huge line up of cars GJ, GA, KA, AP and even TN registered. All busy coming out with their documents and speaking to the COPS. there were some 7 COPS in total with 2 senior traffic inspectors sitting in their Bolero.

After i was stopped, i waited for around 5 min. expecting some Pandu to walk to me. But No! Finally i started looking around hoping some Pandu to look at me and 1 Pandu infact started talking to me in sign language. I shrugged but then i got the message that he wanted me to get down from my car and walk towards him to talk.

For people who dont know i am brought up in Mumbai and very fluent in Marathi. Even a Maharashtrian cant make out i am not a Maharashtrian when i speak to them. Thanks to all my close childhood Maharashtrian friends.

Anyways coming to the point. I got down from the car and started walking towards 1 Pandu who called me. The conversation was completely in Marathi. The conversation went on like this (reference to Pandu here is traffic constable):

Me: (In marathi) Kaay Jhalay saheb? (What happened Sir?)
Pandu: (shocked gave a pause of almost 10 secs and looking at my vehicle no. which is KA :Shockked: ) Do you know wearing seatbelts is compulsory?
Me: Yeah i know So?
Pandu: You and your co-passenger were not wearing seatbelts
Me: Really? Even if i dont want to wear seatbelts i cant get away since all modern cars has an irritating alarm which buzzes every few seconds
Pandu: (getting annoyed and raising his voice): Are you trying to teach me? do you think i dont have cars?
Me: I am not trying to teach you but you tell me what do you want?
Pandu: (raising his voice even more): You are not supposed to talk to me like that?
Me: (I lost my cool at this point and raised my voice as well): How am i supposed to talk to you and first tell me what do you want?

Hearing the argument their chief who was sitting in Bolero (may be watching us) started walking towards us:
Pandu chief (looking at Pandu): Whats going on?
Pandu: Explaining about Seat belt violation
Pandu chief (Looking at me with question mark): Its a traffic violation.
Me: No way! i was wearing seat belt. Please tell me what do you want?
Pandu Chief: You speak good marathi..
Me: Thats not the point. What do you want? I have all the papers i can show you right away!
Pandu Chief: You please leave now!
Me: :D

It was another rainy morning and was getting late to drop kid to the Saturday class.There was usual filter-in and filter-out (typical Pune estyle - moving from right lane to middle and left to right to take turn) happening near to the Karishma square on notorious Paud Phata-Karve road

As I was in middle lane,I was losing time in this phenomenon,whilst the signal was still green. Somehow manage to see my turn to proceed straight and to my bad luck the signal turned Amber. In rush of moment decided to carry on , the moment the signal turned red 5 feets ahead, son screamed on me - "Dad, thats bad ..you too"

I didnt had guts to meet his eyes till we reached destination, then I only said "Sorry" and started my onward journey. "Child is Father to the man" - what a paradox that day :thumbs up my boy

In India, all you need to enjoy a drive is tolerance. If you are going to be pissed at being cut off or overtaken dangerously or honked at, you are going to hate driving around every day. Somehow Hyderabadi traffic sense (lack of) has taught me to just switch off my senses and increased my tolerance levels immensely, while driving my car around.

1. People driving 2 wheelers with their wing mirrors folded inwards so they can see their face on both of them at the same time just to make sure their hairstyle is just perfect.
2. Early morning two wheeler riders speeding with toothbrush still in their mouth as if they are on a mission. That's taking multitasking to a whole different level. May be they are not allowed to spit where they brush?
3. APSRTC buses which stop with perfect precision bang in the center of a busy road to alight passengers.
4. Cops who get pissed at you for stopping at a signal when the light is RED. But this helps the otherwise "creepy loner" feeling I get at times waiting at a Red light while the world moves around you mocking you in the face.
5. The share-autos with 120 bhp and 300NM torque which wheelspins as the signals turn green and does a 100-0 in 1s at 1ft at the sight of a possible 20th passenger on the roadside.
6. The buffalos who have been given special access to the center lane on all roads.

Ah, I need to thank the people around, who now make me smile when I see all these. The sheepish look on their faces when you pass a smile is just priceless.