[selfdrive]

A bit off the road, but connected so here I go.

This Sunday morning, I went to the police station to get a complaint filed for a lost RC book (as directed/ required by RTO). I was waiting for someone else to finish describing the state of a gory accident victim to the cop. In the meanwhile the inspector came up to me and

Him: (sternly) what work brings you here? (looks at my sunday morning dishevelled state)
Me: I, um, need to file a complaint for a lost RC book. As directed by RTO
Him: Where do you live?
Me: xyz society
Him: Ok, what do you do? where do you work?
Me: (thinking oh damn, not here now!) ABC
Him: Lets go there, pointing to the side
Me: (damn it!)
We go to the 'side'
Him: Are you a software engineer
Me: um, no. why?
Him: Oh, I have a cousin, he works in mumbai, but his folks would like him to move back home...
Me: (phew!) here is my business card. ask him to call me

Him: ok, thanks!
Takes my card and directs me to the cop who will take my complaint and goes his way.
second cop to me: how do you know saaheb?

job done in a jiffy. now I wait for the call, one good deed deserves another

Originally Posted by mkpiyengar

What is unusual is if you need to go slow why not use left lane ? What seems to be the problem ?? Right lane is anyway for overtaking and not coasting at 40.

I agree. What I intended to say was while this is not correct, it is not unusual or rare to see such morons. We have regular reports on the Bad drivers thread.

Originally Posted by mb_jg

After about approx 5kms down the road we saw the same guy again, this freaked us out both.

Its better you attribute it to a shortcut in the ghats. Of course by the time you drove down those winding roads, the herd could have come down easily. If you were driving uphill, I dont want to hear anymore of this!

[mb_jg]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Its better you attribute it to a shortcut in the ghats. Of course by the time you drove down those winding roads, the herd could have come down easily. If you were driving uphill, I dont want to hear anymore of this!

LOL, we were going uphill, towards the landslide section. Make no mistake, neither of us were too tired to notice it was the same fellow, I didn't mention that he did give us that same stare as before. Creepy!!!

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by mb_jg

LOL, we were going uphill, towards the landslide section. Make no mistake, neither of us were too tired to notice it was the same fellow, I didn't mention that he did give us that same stare as before. Creepy!!!

Darn you Manish. which part of this sentence did you not get?!

"If you were driving uphill, I dont want to hear anymore of this"

twins, they were twins. I repeat to myself!

[akshay380]

Happened around 2 years back when I visited Bangalore for first time for job interview. I had a train to catch from Cantonment at 8.15PM and I left from Whitefield at 3.30. No one around guided me properly and I got down at Tin factory and then someone told me to catch a bus which will take me to shivajinagar. By this time it was 7pm and was unsure if ill be able to make it on time. I started searching flight tickets as I had to be in Mumbai on schedule. to add to the chaos, metro construction was going on and I was getting anxious as all roads were jammed. There was a guy sitting opposite to me who inquired what was the problem and I told me what had happened. He told me to get down at next stop with him, forcibly stopped an autowala pulled me inside and dropped me at cantonment at 8.05PM guiding the rickshaw through some internal roads. He left from there with auto guy without taking a single penny from me. And called me to confirm whether I got the train. Just firmed my belief that god is always with me. Thanks for reading.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by mb_jg

LOL, we were going uphill, towards the landslide section. Make no mistake, neither of us were too tired to notice it was the same fellow, I didn't mention that he did give us that same stare as before. Creepy!!!

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Darn you Manish. which part of this sentence did you not get?!

"If you were driving uphill, I dont want to hear anymore of this"

twins, they were twins. I repeat to myself!

Guys come on. Can you tell more about this incident? there is nothing paranormal about it. Going uphill or downhill the natives of the hills are quite fast, fit and know not so steep short cuts. Its just one and the same person who has used a shortcut. such things could be used to trick drivers and mug them. you should have got down and asked him how he managed the climb so fast.

[bharat4ever]

This happened to me in Bangalore. there is this signal in Jakkasandra, near Koramangala which is quite long to cross. And the Yellow light comes on for a very short time, and by the time you cross and come over to the other side the cops are convinced that you jumped the signal, even though you crossed when it was yellow.

So on such an instance, the cops caught me, and I protested saying that i crossed when it was yellow. Nothing doing, he asked me for my license and registration, and insurance, and asked me to go talk to the sergeant. Talked, and the sergeant instructed the constable to take 200 bucks from me. I didn't insist on the receipt. (I had just started driving, and it was my first offence, so kinda confused as to what to do). So I gave him 200, and he said be on your way. I sat down, buckled my seat belt and was about to move, when the constable comes back, and gives me one of the Rs. 100 note i gave him. I started wondering whether it was torn and he wants a replacement. He says 100 is enough, go. I was speechless, but left grinning!

[karpusv]

Since the topic is about unusual experiences/incidents on the road, I am sharing my bit, though it does not involve men or humanity.

There is this particular stretch of road between Salem bye-pass towards Bhavani / Erode (approx somehwere ±20km near the coordinates 11.446572,77.752296 I guess)

Flashback - May 2010:
I first traveled by myself on this stretch when I left for my honemoon, routed Bangalore > Kodaikanal > Ooty > Coonoor > Bangalore.

At that time I was using Google Maps on my humble HTC touch and was quite happy the way Google's Blue Track-line was guiding me.
But somewhere as we reached the spot, the Blue tracking line disappeared and the "My location" blue dot was jumping across on the screen.
I laughed and said to myself "Finicky Gadgets". My wife enquired what next and I said it probably was something to do with network loss or something. I was pretty sure as the HTC touch then had no in-built GPS and was completely dependent on carrier network.

There was a small inward bound road and I enquired from a local Tea shop if we were on course and continued.


Forward - May 2011:
On my return trip from Munnar last year for my wife's birthday, we were traveling down the same road in the opposite direction (towards Salem) and somewhere there I mentioned to my wife, that the last time we were here, Google Maps had gone crazy. When she asked how I could remember so clearly, I explained to her that my memory of the place was strong as I had paused for a while the last time, to take a pee break behind a bus stop on the highway that was under construction.

This time though, I had my Galaxy Tab (with a GPS receiver) mounted on the screen with "Mara", the Map My India assistant guiding me turn by turn.

As we passed the same bus stop, I pointed it out to her.

And then I got chill in my bones again!
The Navigation screen that usually shows the blue line (that you follow) along with the arrow pointer, became cranky. The blue line vanished and the Pointer Arrow started rotating in all directions, jumping off screen and reappearing again.

This time as my wife asked me 'Why', I was speechless.

I have no clue as to how this happened. Not sure if anybody else experienced something similar.

[mayuresh]

Originally Posted by karpusv

I have no clue as to how this happened. Not sure if anybody else experienced something similar.

Is that area hilly or was it overcast or any source of high electromagnetic noise around? GPS can flounder for a while if there is any factor that affects signal strength from even a subset of satellites.

[DRIVE_ADDICT]

I thought of sharing one very funny incident happened few months back near Laxman Sruthi signal on 100 ft road chennai. This is a very famous long, heavily blocked signal.

One evening i was waiting for green on one side of the junction, and on the other side, I saw a biker tried to flew off to avoid the signal turning red, but he couldn't and end up caught by the police right in the middle of the road.

The police guy did the usual trick, flick the bike key and head back to the booth expecting the guy to come behind him. That guy was riding some old two stroke, poorly maintained, suzuki max 100 i guess, he just started off the bike and left that place . It seems the bike's key console is just a show piece and the key is not needed for that bike at all. Me and my friend laughed out to the core seeing the police's reaction . Ofcourse the biker is incorrect.. but still. I couldn't forget this incident.

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by karpusv

There is this particular stretch of road between Salem bye-pass towards Bhavani / Erode (approx somehwere ±20km near the coordinates 11.446572,77.752296 I guess)

Originally Posted by mayuresh

Is that area hilly or was it overcast or any source of high electromagnetic noise around? GPS can flounder for a while if there is any factor that affects signal strength from even a subset of satellites.

+1 ^^
Also, google maps shows there is a radio station there, "SSM Radio 90.8" There is also an engineering college there. You never know what those engineers might be upto

[Red Liner]

So here's a quick incident for me to share:

Sometime in 2001, which is when I was riding the Yezdi. I was riding down MG Road in Bangalore and I took some godforsaken U-turn in the middle and was promptly caught by the cops.

I was quick to get the keys off the bike and into my pocket though. So the cop manning the street hauled me over to his sergeant for a discussion. And of course, there were a whole lot of others too hauled up for similar offences...all discussing their respective "fines".

Now the cop who caught me went back to the street to haul up more unsuspecting victims, and he kept a watch on the rest of us and how much we were doling out. But there's only so much attention he could give.

There was this one guy who was having a very loud discussion...nay, argument with the sergeant. Now, you dont argue with these guys. You cajole, beg, and ask to be let off. But as I saw the argument, I found the loophole.

I walked closer to the both of them, and started supporting the sergeant. The sergeant figured I was just a random by stander who wanted in on the melee (yeah, right). And therefore "my discussion" with the sergeant started. I made sure the cop on the street watched me a few times. And then as the argument was dying out, I walked away, got on my bike, saluted the cop and rode off.

Well, in those days saving a 100 bucks meant dinner or a night of the hunger games.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by apachelongbow

Reason is because, as valid driving licence holders we should be aware of road rules and signs and if we must obey them. Penalizing for offence is the only way to prevent a repeat offence. At least one will be more careful after being fined by a cop.

Are you even implying that murderers and terrorists should be allowed to do their thing and the cops should nab them after they have killed a few thousand innocent lives ? If the cops are there in the scene, according to what I know about Law Enforcement, it is for them to enforce the law rather than watch the law being broken and then collect a fine. A traffic offence is not too far from a murder or a terrorist attack, innocent, law abiding people sometimes lose their lives or their limbs.

Just as you said about a valid driving licence holder, as a valid human being, you are expected to respect other human beings irrespective of caste, creed, colour or political orientation.

Originally Posted by karpusv

I first traveled by myself on this stretch when I left for my honemoon, routed Bangalore > Kodaikanal > Ooty > Coonoor > Bangalore.

I hope it was for your honeymoon and not a "honemoon", either way how could anyone travel by themselves on their moon ?

[karpusv]

Originally Posted by mayuresh

Is that area hilly or was it overcast or any source of high electromagnetic noise around? GPS can flounder for a while if there is any factor that affects signal strength from even a subset of satellites.

The area is actually quite flat land with a straight strectch of road over 20 kms. Quite possible that EM noise can affect GPS. But am not aware about Non-GPS based devices though.

Originally Posted by amitoj

+1 ^^
Also, google maps shows there is a radio station there, "SSM Radio 90.8" There is also an engineering college there. You never know what those engineers might be upto.

Could be one of the reasons. A single radio station tower catering to larger radius with a permit for high strength broadcast maybe

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

...I hope it was for your honeymoon and not a "honemoon", either way how could anyone travel by themselves on their moon ?..

Oops! My Bad. It was the Honeymoon. And true, I drove all the ~1200km by myself. Predecided by wife & me

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Are you even implying that murderers and terrorists should be allowed to do their thing and the cops should nab them after they have killed a few thousand innocent lives ? If the cops are there in the scene, according to what I know about Law Enforcement, it is for them to enforce the law rather than watch the law being broken and then collect a fine. A traffic offence is not too far from a murder or a terrorist attack, innocent, law abiding people sometimes lose their lives or their limbs.

Just as you said about a valid driving licence holder, as a valid human being, you are expected to respect other human beings irrespective of caste, creed, colour or political orientation.




I hope it was for your honeymoon and not a "honemoon", either way how could anyone travel by themselves on their moon ?

Where are you taking this topic to mate? You asked if trafffic policemen could stop offences before they occur and not fine people later, to which i said, as a valid licence holder you are expected to know your rules.
Where does the terrorist and etc come into place here?

OT: If you want traffic policeman to 'prevent' offences, then he/she should be god. He must stop you before you drive without ur seatbelt, he must place the helmet over your head, he must apply your car brakes so that you donot break a red light... and so on. Come on, if you do not want to take responsibility of your driving, then sorry dont expect others to spoon feed you, especially the law.

[Archish]

Happened to me last month.

Chennai - Lazy Sunday morning, just woke up. Wifey visiting her parent's place in Vellore. Mom on phone with sister in Bengaluru, looks like something very very serious, instincts tells me to gobble up some bread, and I do. Yes, my instinct is right, sister needs emergency spinal surgery and we have to be in Bengaluru ORR in next 5 hours. We pick up wifey in Vellore and I realize that I left my License home, now only option left is that we pray I dont get pulled up by a cop. Sure enough, I get stopped for speeding a couple of kms before Electronic City. Wife is a news anchor in Sun TV. Take her ID card and show it to the constable and tell 'Press, Emergency', nothing doing he says, tells me to see the sergeant. Now, the constable is almost 20-25 mts from the sergeant and its almost 1.30 pm and they are winding up the speed gun, I am the last person to be pulled up . I dont talk anything, just ask him how much is the fine, He says 300, readily give it to him, asks for the license, I say its with the constable, he is in a hurry to finish, so scribbles something under the license number column and gives me the receipt. I take it from him thank him and show the receipt to constable take the ID card and leave. 'Great escape' I think to myself. Again Mr.Instinct tells me to save the receipt.

Now again, Monday evening while making the Nth number of trip from hospital to my sisters home, I get flagged down no reason, I guess it must be because of my TN registration. The sergeant asks for the license, dont know what to do. I am screwed I think to myself. Then Mr.Instinct to my rescue. I tell him that I lost my license only that afternoon, I m from Chennai, I can get a new one only after I go to Chennai. he stares at me, there is no way he is going to believe that, he says I cant drive my car without license, now I take the speeding fine receipt and show it to him. See, I tell him, I had it even yesterday, I have to get to Chennai to get a new one. Now, he notes down the License number (god knows how he understood the numbers and what he wrote down), and asks me to move. I am like