[paragsachania]

Not really a story to narrate but a picture speaks those words:



For me, after regularly witnessing the attitude of motorists in Bangalore at such Railway crossings and even traffic signals, this was indeed a heartwarming experience. The length of the queue was beyond 200 meters (can be seen on the ORVM) and this is a Highway that witnesses very less traffic of all sorts and yet no one (Including any of the regular drivers here) jumped the lane and blocked the oncoming traffic ahead.

Location was between Holenarasipura - Hassan at the Railway crossing near Mavinakere.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

Originally Posted by humyum

An incident which shook me a little, but also made me realise that Mumbaikars are like brothers, they sense something wrong and people come to aid.

Proud of you man and the Vento guy too!
If there is something that make Mumbai slightly more human than other cities its people like you!

Proud to be a responsible Mumbaikar (though haven't lived there since 2006)

[sagaranjos]

Originally Posted by esteem_lover

Wonder why cops WAIT for an offence and then penalise instead of being out there preventing one !!

I guess they have targets on fine collected, not on incidents prevented.
Also, plus it's not easy to keep track of incidents prevented.

[anandharamanp]

Hats off to you and Vento guy!

[V-16]

Proud of you bro!! It takes a lot of guts to do something like this which makes people feel humanity is not dead. Actually you should have reported the number of the car to the cops too.

[sridhu]

I have refrained from commenting on this incident as I did not think it was handled right but considering the popularity of the post, I feel I must.

While undoubtedly brave, the OP's actions were foolhardy. Both cars could have been in a world of trouble and their actions could have escalated an already fraught situation.

I had a similar experience with very different results - a couple of guys were harassing a guy & girl near Accenture office near Forum. I confronted them and it was turning ugly & physical. The girl & the guy who were being harassed? They just kept walking!

We live in a society where even the affected party does not stand up.

The correct response, imo, should have been to call the cops & stay with the troubled car until the cops arrive. Hero-Giri rarely works in real life.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by humyum

An incident which shook me a little, but also made me realise that Mumbaikars are like brothers, they sense something wrong and people come to aid.

Good job (in hindsight)!

Given the growing instances of abuse towards women, this act most likely was of a great help to them.

However.

This is a happy ending under the assumption that it was the men at fault. If it weren't to be the case, and one of you took the Swift boys to the police, they were in a position they couldn't justify their innocence.

Now, a vast majority of cases are such where the women are being harassed; and there only a very few where men are the victims. And unfortunately, in that moment of reckoning, we may not be in a position to identify this very thin line.

Also, a very different issue is the potential of the situation between the Swift boys and you/Vento to escalate. In some parts of India, you'd even have a gun pointed at you!

[aqualeo2040]

Originally Posted by sridhu

I had a similar experience with very different results - a couple of guys were harassing a guy & girl near Accenture office near Forum. I confronted them and it was turning ugly & physical. The girl & the guy who were being harassed? They just kept walking!
Hero-Giri rarely works in real life.

Thanks brother. You may not have realized but your 'hero-giri' did work and save the day.
The girl/guy did the most logical thing possible, put distance between them and the morons, and you helped in creating the diversion.

Do we really intervene for that 'thanks' or just to control the situation?
Anyways, a big hearty vote of Thanks from all of us, and keep it coming!(avoid the physical bit, as long as you have distracted the offending party, your job is done).
Cheers

[ajay_satpute]

Originally Posted by humyum

An incident which shook me a little, but also made me realise that Mumbaikars are like brothers, they sense something wrong and people come to aid.

Hats off to both of you !!! It is guys like you who make people believe in humanity.
What I am slightly surprised is that there was no police throughout the incidence at any of the junctions. Having cops at some junction would have helped catch those buggers, may be.

[King_pin09]

Originally Posted by ashishmathur14

A similar incident happened when I jumped the signal turning yellow in Powai,Mumbai (signal in front of Powai Lake),The usual Mumbai Traffic cops caught hold of me and the conversation went like:

Me - Sir, When i crossed, it was switching from Green to Yellow ! Yellow mein to nikal sakte hai na !

Cop - Sir, aap to educated ho, Yellow ka matlab hota hai slow down and stop na ki accelerator dabao and nikalo.
Fine bharo abhi signal jump kia to.
(after checking all documents)

I found it really logical and did not argue over it again !
Since then, If any approaching signal appears to be switching to Yellow from Green, I slow down and stop. It does irritate many errant drivers driving behind my vehicle.

This is the problem with all of us Indians. A signal turning amber clearly means only the vehicles which have already crossed the stop line can complete their maneuver rest all vehicles have to STOP forthwith. Sadly many motorists misconstrue it as “pass the signal at high speed before it turns red.”, and end up in disasters.

It really agitates me seeing bikers and autowallahs moving from the entry to a junction (Say from road A) at which the signal has just turned red onto another side for which the signal is about to turn green (say to Road B). This creates confusion among pedestrians who are in the process of crossing the road B, (where the signal is still red and about to turn green) and to other vehicles that are crossing the junction (say from road C) and taking their exit from left side of Road B.

Originally Posted by sridhu

I have refrained from commenting on this incident as I did not think it was handled right but considering the popularity of the post, I feel I must.

While undoubtedly brave, the OP's actions were foolhardy. Both cars could have been in a world of trouble and their actions could have escalated an already fraught situation.

I had a similar experience with very different results - a couple of guys were harassing a guy & girl near Accenture office near Forum. I confronted them and it was turning ugly & physical. The girl & the guy who were being harassed? They just kept walking!

We live in a society where even the affected party does not stand up.

The correct response, imo, should have been to call the cops & stay with the troubled car until the cops arrive. Hero-Giri rarely works in real life.

Agree with you 100%. As a responsible citizen our obligation lies only up to the extent of informing the police to intervene and take up the matter legitimately and if viable attempting to calm down the situation in the mean time. Remember at the end of the day your life, integrity and well being are as much important or to the extent of your dependents, it is of paramount importance. This is particularly when we are complete strangers to either of the parties and unaware of the circumstances leading to the brawl. They could be group of friends which had picked some disagreement while partying, the seeming victim could have indebted moneys from the seeming offender and absconding since long and there could be several other reasons which we cannot think of.

In my opinion, it is much more important to understand the totality of circumstances before one could derive a conclusion in such matters. By generalizing that gender A is always humble by birth and gender B is always criminal by birth and jumping into conclusions blindly, is probably the most dreadful act one does in such situations.

[sunny310c]

Originally Posted by humyum

An incident which shook me a little, but also made me realise that Mumbaikars are like brothers, they sense something wrong and people come to aid.

Kudos to you and the Vento guy for doing what you thought was necessary to help those girls out. I am not sure if I would have done the same myself as things could have gotten quite ugly given the high speeds and dangerous manoeuvring involved. I mean, even without anyone meaning it, people could have got hurt or worse. Thankfully nothing of that sort happened.

We need more people like yourself and that Vento driver to make our roads, our cities, our country safer and a better place for everyone.

God Bless!!

[pratyush6]

Originally Posted by humyum

An incident which shook me a little, but also made me realise that Mumbaikars are like brothers, they sense something wrong and people come to aid.

Phew. I never thought such things happen on Indian road and I never thought people come to other's rescue in such ways too.

A lot of people have appreciated you and I could not keep myself away from it. I have done this in real life but I cannot imagine attempting this in a car. Hats Off and great work again.

[humyum]

Originally Posted by ksameer1234

This feels straight out of a Fast and Furious script! And yes, it is true that being on road in Mumbai, there is always a feeling that traffic all around in considerate of each other.

However, I think the girls could have avoided taking the Gandhinagar flyover and gone to the junction where they might have been able to find some cops. But then, typing from comfort of home is totally different compared to being in the middle of threatening situation.

Kudos to you and fellow Vento driver for keeping the faith in Mumbaikars intact!!

Yes, they could have but I guess the left turn to go under the flyover right after the IIT junction could have been unknown to them as even I realised just some months back that you can go below the flyover from that road.

Originally Posted by shifu

What you both did was very courageous. In the heat of the moment, the Swift guy could have actually rammed the Vento in the front. And in some parts of the country, you never know if the other guy has a gun! I don't think I would have the courage to get involved directly. I would have probably followed them and contacted the police at the same time. But that's just me - a mango man who is taught to stay away from trouble.

Thankfully your story has a happy ending, and I am sure those girls must be thanking their stars...

Thank you

Originally Posted by TheRajput

A very similar incident happened yesterday around 10 PM with me.
I was on my CL 350 going towards western express highway from SV road Bandra. As I took a left from SV road & got onto the WEH, I saw a biker (no helmet & with a pillion) riding recklessly & coming extremely close to an auto. As I moved a little forward, I saw that there were two girls in the auto & the biker along with the pillion was passing comments and signaling towards the girl sitting on the left side of the auto. All this while I was tailing the biker. As soon as I got a chance to squeeze in, I blared my horn & got between the auto & the bike. The biker didn't expect this & gave me a stare, to which I replied with what are you trying to do. Was expecting the biker to become aggressive, but to my surprise he just raced off from the spot.

The driver of the auto gave me a smile & moved on.

Thank you for taking action

Originally Posted by Dieseltuned

Hi buddy,
That's down right scarry and that too in Mumbai. I am speechless. Cannot think that this could have happened in Mumbai of all places.

A very heartfelt thank you to you and the Vento guy, you played the game very well.

By any chance did you note down the Swifts plates ? Could be very handy to give them to the cops.

Regards
Dieseltuned

No, I did not note down the Swift's number, that thought incidentally did not even run through my mind then as things were happening to fast.

Originally Posted by 1.2TSI7DSG

Proud of you man and the Vento guy too!
If there is something that make Mumbai slightly more human than other cities its people like you!

Proud to be a responsible Mumbaikar (though haven't lived there since 2006)

Thank you

Originally Posted by anandharamanp

Hats off to you and Vento guy!

Thank you

Originally Posted by V-16

Proud of you bro!! It takes a lot of guts to do something like this which makes people feel humanity is not dead. Actually you should have reported the number of the car to the cops too.

Next time I will make it a point to remember to note down the number

Originally Posted by sridhu

I have refrained from commenting on this incident as I did not think it was handled right but considering the popularity of the post, I feel I must.

While undoubtedly brave, the OP's actions were foolhardy. Both cars could have been in a world of trouble and their actions could have escalated an already fraught situation.

I had a similar experience with very different results - a couple of guys were harassing a guy & girl near Accenture office near Forum. I confronted them and it was turning ugly & physical. The girl & the guy who were being harassed? They just kept walking!

We live in a society where even the affected party does not stand up.

The correct response, imo, should have been to call the cops & stay with the troubled car until the cops arrive. Hero-Giri rarely works in real life.

I respectfully accept your opinion, but to be honest, I did not think about the cops, neither did I think about noting their number, it was an instant call in my head to go for it, what had to be at that moment otherwise those guys will be a mere number plate and I would have to keep following them till the end of times till the girls stopped somewhere (probably their house) or the guys decided to get out of the car at some signal to do something stupid and then I would have to physically confront 4 with me being 1 or they would decide just to give up, either case I rather put my car and use it as a weapon then get out of the car and confront someone.

About the cops, I live in Ghatkopar, there is a big hall in our lane where marriages are held, people park their cars many a times right on my building gate which makes it impossible for any of us to pull out our car, we have called the cops multiple times, it's a task to even explain to them where the location of my building is even though its in a very prominent location in Ghatkopar, most of the time I am pulling my hair trying to get them to understand where this place is, out of the 10 calls I would have made, once someone has turned up and done something about it, JUST ONCE.

Should I really be trusting the hit and miss ratio with the cops when I can do something myself at the moment? I am sure if I reported something more serious they would turn up all the time but STILL, I don't trust their response time and that's just my opinion

Just somedays back a video was posted on Facebook ( don't know the location of that place) where in some guys were harassing two girls who were with a guy friend of theirs, when these people said they will complain to the cops, these guys called some more of their friends and beat a guy and girl up out of the 3 in between a road with 30 people watching the show like mere spectators. Cops said they had run out of fuel in their beat van and hence they did not show up for 40 minutes, the beating and bhaigiri was over by then, if the 30 people wanted, they could have overpowered those hooligans easily, but hey they thought 'let the cops handle it, why risk anything'? The cops when they came were asking how the guy who was with the girls knew the girls and questioning them like they were some criminals, what would I have answered if I did get the cops in between? Some girls travelling in an Alto I witnessed were being harassed and I want to help them?

Yes lot's of things could have gone wrong, he might have ended up crashing into my car, the Vento could have been smashed from behind, all 3 cars could have ended up in a pickle, the guys would have had a gun etc etc but if we keep thinking about the 'if's all we'll do is keep thinking, neither the Vento guy thought about it, neither did I. We had 2 cars against one, we had the odds with us, all we had to do was to stop them, so why not? And who knows me not taking any action would have led to the Swift crashing against the Alto driven by the girls too since the 4 boys in the Swift were upto real stunts

To each his own, I will choose this direction yet again if I am faced with this situation because we live in India and there is not going to be a police car coming to help at the speed of light after I dial 911, harsh reality but till that changes, we have to become our own police and if something like this were to happen to my mom or sister while they are on the road or anywhere and I am not around the first question I would ask is 'What was the public doing while all this was going on' as public is the first line of defence and that defence should be actionable and tough.

Originally Posted by ajay_satpute

Hats off to both of you !!! It is guys like you who make people believe in humanity.
What I am slightly surprised is that there was no police throughout the incidence at any of the junctions. Having cops at some junction would have helped catch those buggers, may be.

This is a highway and at night, you will 99% of the times not find cops here, yes once you cross ghatkopar and the Amar Mahal bridge, the people density increases, the cop density goes up as at Kurla Junction, Priyadarshini Junction there are cops sometimes.

Originally Posted by sunny310c

Kudos to you and the Vento guy for doing what you thought was necessary to help those girls out. I am not sure if I would have done the same myself as things could have gotten quite ugly given the high speeds and dangerous manoeuvring involved. I mean, even without anyone meaning it, people could have got hurt or worse. Thankfully nothing of that sort happened.

We need more people like yourself and that Vento driver to make our roads, our cities, our country safer and a better place for everyone.

God Bless!!

Thank you

Originally Posted by pratyush6

A lot of people have appreciated you and I could not keep myself away from it. I have done this in real life but I cannot imagine attempting this in a car. Hats Off and great work again.

Thank you

[rageshgr]

So last year I was going to my office. I used to use my two-wheeler Wego then. We were all slowing down for a toll. There was a lady in front of me on a Honda Activa by about 25-30 meters.

Now, I don't know what happened or whether I blinked for a second, but the gap between the lady in front and me was closing rapidly. We had almost entered the single bike lane of the toll and may due to cascade effect, she was suddenly stationary. I braked, and thinking that if I hit her from rear, since it is a lady, I would be in trouble, so I braked as hard as I can. I still rear-ended her scooter, but thankfully since she was already stationary, she did not fall. I slid off my seat due to the impact and my right knee hit my scooter key so hard that the key assembly went in by 3 cm.

But I stood up again and with a worried face, I said "sorry". May be because I drive an Invalid carriage two wheeler with extra wheels or may be since she realised she is not hurt and it was not anyone's fault per se, she also said "Sorry, are you ok?". So I said, "Yes I am okay. Are you alright? Sure you are ok?" She replied in the affirmative. This repeated two-three times and we went on our ways.

One of the benign "incidents" I have been part of.

[Chetan_Rao]

Out for some errands on our scooter, I suddenly get a call from an unknown number asking me who I am. I pick up, go through the 'you called so you tell me who you want' routine, and was about to disconnect assuming it's another of those random wrong-numbers before the guy addresses me by name, asking whether I'm riding a RED scooter with a lady riding pillion named XXXXX.

He has my attention now, but I'm still unsure where this is going. He asks me to check with my pillion if she has her phone. Eureka!

The better half's phone has slipped out of her pocket unknown to her, and the chap has picked it up and called me (we both have each other's number listed as Emergency Contact on lock screen). He asks me to return to a spot close to my home and collect it, which I do promptly.

Nice to meet a kind soul once in a while.

P.S. The phone without any protective covers, somehow miraculously avoided damage to the screen and works absolutely fine, though it's dinged in a few places on the frame. Will get a case and sorted.