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-   -   Unusual / funny / heartwarming experiences on the road (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/125412-unusual-funny-heartwarming-experiences-road-52.html)

And what you can't see there is the four people on the bike ;)

So here's an interesting anecdote - it's neither funny nor heartwarming; but couldn't figure out a better place to put it.

My firm has multiple offices spread across Mumbai; and I accidently booked and boarded an Uber for a different office than the one I was supposed to go. Both the offices are only a few kms apart, so I hail a local black&yellow cab.

One of the older, just barely running Alto cabs, I get into the front passenger seat and start to buckle myself in (seatbelt). The driver looks at me amusingly and says "Jaane do, zarurat nahi hai" (Leave it, it ain't necessary). I shrug my shoulders and buckle in while he's still looking at me with mixed emotions.

The next second - the car in front of us brakes suddenly; so does he immediately. And an auto behind us hits the bumper.

Thankfully no one is injured; the auto looks at the dent in the bumper and scoots away. And we move along.

Please wear a seat-belt. Always.

I can totally relate to this.

A few months back, I booked a Uber cab ( it was a Ford Aspire) to go to college. Since I had some stuff with me along with my laptop bag, I decided to take the rear seat. The roads were clear, wide and smooth but had slight curves all along. We had hardly covered a kilometre when I felt I was going all over the place in the back seat and felt really uncomfortable without the seat belts (maybe because I was seated at the rear after a long time or because I'm used to being buckled up and with my hands on the wheel). However, the moment I buckled up, the driver gave a confused glance and suddenly slowed down from ~80kmph to ~40kmph.

I didn't say anything at first but after some time (I almost got droopy doing such speeds on open roads) explained that I buckled up only because I'm used to it and that I would be thankful if I could reach on time:D

A couple of days back, my friend gave an epic facepalm sign to me when he saw me buckling up before moving the car to a different spot in the same parking lot.

Most Uber and Ola vehicles I have taken hardly have the facility to buckle up on the rear seats; courtesy the extra seat cover they have, the belt buckle gets buried deep inside. That's why I always try to get the front seat (even in shared cabs).

On a recent trip to Pune with colleagues in my car, I had to ask the folks in the back to buckle up. Even now, they sometimes refer it with a chuckle as if it's a joke. Recently one of my colleague who borrowed my Activa for a few days chose to not wear the helmet; this even after I reminded him twice about the helmet kept under the seat.

One just gets in the habit. Moving car = wear seatbelt. It doesn't matter where, or how short a journey.

Similarly, I'm a manic indicator. I'll use the direction indicators when turning right or left, even if I am the only vehicle on a private property. It happens without thinking.

These habits are good habits. Even if we sometimes catch ourselves feeling a bit silly about them!

But there are times, quite a few, when myself and the passerby remain confused, seeing my attempts to secure the seat belt after climbing on a Two wheeler.:D

Same here. The other day, I went to watch a movie. And I was laughing on myself when instinctively, I started looking for seatbelt when sitting on the chair there lol:

But yes, good habits should never be discounted, even if sometimes it leads to funny situations. I have made it into my muscle memory - a sequence of steps that I take, unconsciously, when I get into my car. Slot the key, wait for the all the signs on the dials to turn off, turn key for ignition, lock the doors (my car does not have auto door locks), put on my seat belt, look for settings of ORVMs and IRVMs and move the car.

Yesterday on my way home, I was waiting at a traffic signal behind a few two wheelers.

A pillion rider was holding a table fan on her lap to the left. It was quite windy and the fan was whirring away to glory. Two teenagers on the bike to her left started acting as if they were blow drying their hair with the help of the fan. The lady holding the fan got confused and started pressing the buttons on the bottom pedestal of the fan; probably to switch it off lol:

The teenagers probably had the laugh of their day, while we moved on to resume our mundane commute when the signal turned green.

http://ahmedabadmirror.indiatimes.co...w/64248584.cms

I mean no offence to anyone by this post. This is a conversation that happened between me and my then 5 year old son while we both were on the road in my EcoSport TDCi.

So, my son is very interested in knowing all about the cars and bikes and usually has a lot of questions about them.

This fine day, me and my son were driving down and he recognised a Linea TJet which overtook me.

Son: Papa what is the difference between petrol and diesel cars? How are they different?

Me: (to make him understand don't know why I used this analogy and sincerely mean no offence to anyone)
Diesel engines are like donkeys, load them up to the brim and they would still be happy chugging along. Whereas petrol engines are like horses, they go fast but don't like being loaded too much.

A brief moment of silence. Meanwhile I happened to overtake the linea which had just overtook me a couple bof minutes back.

The moment we passed the linea, there goes my son -

"Aaj toh gadha ghode se jyaada tej bhaag raha hai":D

Translation: "today a donkey is running faster than a horse"

It had me in splits. He had no clue why am I laughing and had a very sweet and innocent look on his face!

Interesting example at such short notice! I remember reading somewhere that donkeys are actually very intelligent animals. Unfortunately due to their image as beasts of burden, they are assumed to be stupid.

Is this not the traditional way of looking up at show horses and looking down at beasts of burden. Though essentially, these poor overworked animals (donkeys/ bullocks/ camels/ elephants) help us more than show ponies. I can probably empathise with them more being a tech labourer myself. Though there goes my thinly veiled attempt at putting myself in the intelligent bracket stupid:

I don't really know if the analogy holds good in terms of emissions from diesel vs petrol vehicles (donkeys vs horses) lol:

Don't know about the emissions, but the engine note does resemble to that of a donkey (diesel) and a horse (Petrol).

Kids are very perceptive these days. When we drive, we often tell our 3 yrs old son about the traffic lights and what they mean. This was just one of the many things on the road we would point out as as 'show and tell' mainly to keep him engaged, rather than as a learning. Last week, we were going down this road that had a signal-based right turn and a free straight passage. Since i was going straight, i drove on. Immediately after crossing that junction , my son asked why did daddy not stop when the signal light was showing red (for the right turn!) Was quite struck by his perception/grasp of the traffic lights concept. Of cause we had to explain to him that the red light for for people taking a right turn while we were going straight.

I was tailing an oh-so-slow water tanker truck through narrow residential roads here in Chennai a while ago. We became a convoy of impatient vehicles, with maybe 10 cars/bikes waiting for a chance, raring to go faster than 30 Kmph.

Everyone in the convoy had had a go at leaving the unhappy convoy behind, but were ultimately forced to fall back in line.

On came Dido and Faithless' song One step too far on my car's entertainment system, with these apt lyrics:

With you I feel I'm the meek leading the blind
With you I feel I'm just spending wasting time
I've been waiting
I'm still waiting

I was indeed meekly following the lumbering truck (being immediately behind it), while those behind me were blinded by my car's height (mine being a TUV 300). We were all wasting time and indeed we were waiting... I had a good laugh! How apt can lyrics be for a situation?

:)

Great thread. After reading these lighthearted anecdotes, I recount a hilarious incident I was part of.

This happened a couple of years back at the usually crowded commercial place called Ameerpet in Hyderabad. I was returning home on my bike and came to a halt as I was approaching a junction. Immediately a transgender came up to me and started demanding money. After being annoyed by their behaviour(they were touching me inappropriately), I parted with a 10/- note. The transgender then moved on to another motorist who just joined to my right.

This guy would have none of this nonsense and after a few seconds started touching them in return. Until then only my peripheral vision caught the action. Not believing what was unfolding I turned my head. I was watching a transgender getting a taste of their own medicine. It was literally Nana Patekar style retaliation, if you have seen the clip on youtube. A few moments later we were shown the green. I started accelerating and the guy also started moving. But not before this shocked transgender and a couple of cronies from nearby cursed him in Telugu.

I was laughing all the way with a sense of satisfaction. Served them right, I felt.