[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by Added_flavor

I sleep with a smile not only because of the silence but also for the fact that I can indeed rely on our authorities for some help and assistance!

I think it varies region wise. They are pretty good in Bangalore from what I've heard.
I called 100 once on a sunday evening as there was a security alarm buzzer from an ATM near my house.

They came within 10 minutes. I didn't stay long as I finished my Panipuri from a nearby vendor and went home.

[NPV]

Recent experience - Mystery of the missing Hen (Solved):
Weekday evening, as I reach home on my scooter, I see one neighbour peering below his car parked on the street opposite our home. Another neighbour seems to be tensed and looking for something on the street and I see wifey's WagonR backed up half the distance into our car porch, with the other half of the car on the street, seemingly like an abandoned move when backing up the car

Now, it was my chance to be worried. Since the gate was open, I quickly go in, park the scooter and come out onto the street. I ask my wife what had happened. She said a neighbor's Hen was missing and then goes on to tell me what happened. The BWSSB (municipal water supply authority) person had come to our home for the monthly billing and when he was done, he left our gate open while heading out.

Just a little later, a neighbor's Hen was taking a stroll on the street when very heroically, another neighbor's dog jumped a 7 foot fence to chase the poor Hen. In a matter of few seconds, several feathers were flying and by then the neighbors were out on the street. The dog quickly retraced it's way back to it's home when the owner came out and then everyone realized that the hen was missing, so the search began. Now, the beginning of the search operation coincided with the time when wifey had reached home and was backing the car up, so she stopped abruptly and got out to find out what happened. She was glad she had not run over the Hen unknowingly. Just imagine my plight when I was listening to this story so far, my heart rate was slowly coming down to normal and I really wanted to but controlled myself. Trying to take an analytical approach, instead of randomly searching all over, I tried asking them some questions like where the dog attached the Hen, were there any traces of blood on the road, etc. Searches at all places that were obvious suspects turned negative, including our garden, neighbour's garden, below the Dzire parked in the porch, periphery of our homes along the boundary walls. Now, I even suspected it could have possibly jumped on to the sloping roof of our home and then headed up to our terrace, even that turned out negative! By now, some pedestrians passing by also came to enquire what was going on so there was a lot of action.

Soon, it started raining heavily and by then everyone concluded that the Hen was lost. The neighbour whose dog had attacked the Hen promised to pay the other neighbor for the loss but also said he will check his CCTV footage once again to see if he can find some clues about where the Hen could possibly have gone.

The rain stopped after about 15 minutes and another neighbor reaches home. Barely has this person opened their gate to park the scooter, and then there is a lot of loud, excited banter again.

Again, all neighbors congregate and one of them is pointing towards a shoe rack they have outside their main door, very close to the gate. The poor scared Hen was there cowled up and petrified to even lift it's head. During the entire search operation it was hiding there after escaping from the dog! It had lost some feathers and had some minor wounds but otherwise all was well.

All's well that ends well.

[OverKill]

People are crazy!



Not to forget this will be a 100% illegal and can be termed as animal torture.

Snapped this on my way to work at Ghodbunder Road, Thane, Mumbai.

PS. I hope I have posted this on the right thread.

[ninjatalli]

Prejudice can be funny at times!

2014: Chicago, IL
I have recently moved to the US and have yet to get a car of my own. My room-mate having a car; with our office being the same delayed the purchase decision by over a month. However I have guests coming over for a weekend, so I get a rental car for the weekend, a Chrysler 200. We drive all day across the city suburbs without any issue.

Later in the night, I'm heading back home when a cab who's on the adjacent lane keeps making gestures at me; and mouthing something to me which I am not able to comprehend. After a few minutes I realize he's beckoning me to look in the rear-view mirror; and I see a copy with flashing lights right behind me! Apparently he's been behind me for a while; although the lights have been flashing; he hadn't used the siren.

I quickly take the shoulder and stop ahead; waiting for the cop to come over; all kinds of negative thoughts going through my mind; most of all was the fast overtakes I had just done a few minutes ago! He takes a few additional minutes, while my mind goes crazy, picturing crazy amounts of fine and whatnot. Finally the cop comes over; asks for my license and registration. When I hand over; he calmly looks at me and asks if this is a rental car. I nod in the affirmative; and then he slowly informs me that I had been driving without my lights on!!! I then realize the knob wasn't functioning; and blissfully unaware of it. A few wiggles and it comes on; the cop hands back my documents and asks me to move ahead.

And that was my first nerve-wracking cop incident


2015: Charlotte, NC
I'm heading from Charlotte towards Greensboro; a short drive of ~80 miles on I-40 when I hear a pop sound and one of my tires losing air very fast (=flat). I quickly stop on the shoulder; and start removing the jack and spare tire.

This was the right middle of the period when cop shootings were the main news all over the country. I see a cop car with his flashing lights heading towards me. Without thinking clearly, I quickly head back to the driver's seat and wait for the cop to arrive.

A few minutes later, the cop arrives at my door and looks at me with a bemused expression on his face. He asks me if I had a flat; to which I nod in the affirmative. He then asks if I need a towing vehicle; I tell him I know how to change the tire; to which he asks me to get started immediately.

Over the next 10-15 mins while I change the tire; the cop car stays behind me for safety. I finish up and give a call of thanks to him and head home.

And that was my second and last encounter with the US cops

[airguitar]

Old one, but felt like posting.

It was one of those trips to Biligirirangana betta. After an early morning start, we stopped on the roadside by one of the numerous big paddy fields you see around Malavalli. This road never had good restaurants or eateries ( not sure if it is still the case ), so we had packed food from home. After pulling over on the side of the road, rolled up the windows and devoured the puliyogare. After a while we see someone knocking on the window glass. We see an aged man in soiled clothes. We are a little flustered that this man may ask for something. Reluctantly, I roll the glass and ask him what he wanted. He lifts up a jug of water and says, "I saw you having food, and I thought you might need some drinking water after you have eaten, so brought some". Then we found out that he was a farmer and owned one of the fields nearby and had walked some decent distance across the field to bring water for us.

Oh the littleness of the city people and the large hearts of the farmers and rural folks in general.

[Shumi_21]

The Panoti Effect

I was waiting for a red light to turn green on my way to work. Filtered my way to the front of the line and saw the signal was counting down from 170 odd seconds. Switched off my engine and opened my helmet’s visor for some fresh air on a humid Mumbai morning.

Rickshaw driver beside me: (Pointing at my jacket and gloves) Racing karte ho kya? Badi garmi lagti hogi ye sab pehen ke…………

Me: (Explaining that I don’t race and wear the gear for my safety and that I’m used to the heat now)

While this conversation is happening, a guy in a brown Ciaz behind me starts honking. The signal is still counting down from 100 odd seconds, I look back at the driver and point at the red light. He gestures at me to jump the signal, I ignore him and he continues honking like a madman. Without looking back, I raise both my arms in a ‘hands-up’ gesture, making it clear that I am not jumping the signal. This enrages him further and he goes berserk with his honking. I take the opportunity to piss him off even more and get off my bike and pretend to tie my shoe lace, I bend over rather than squat while doing this, just to ensure Sir Honks-A-Lot gets a full view of my derriere. The signal meanwhile is counting down at 70 seconds.

Rickshaw driver: (amused by my antics) Darne ka nai, Mard bano, Mera naam lekar nikal lo gaadi (bike). Kuch nahi hoga! Asli Mard log signal se Nahi dara karte.

Me: Bhaiya, aapka naam leke niklunga toh accident hona pakka hai!

Auto driver laughs and jumps the signal, Baron Von Horny moves ahead and is now beside me. I couldn’t believe he created all that ruckus to gain barely 5 metres. Told him what a dreadful, sickening bucket of devious donkey snot he was and then I heard screeching tyres. Looked ahead and saw the signal jumping rickshaw had been hit by a Polo coming from the left. Thankfully, the damage was limited to a few dents on either vehicle.

Customary abuses were exchanged, fist-fights were threatened and our signal finally turned green. As I passed the scene of the accident slowly, I heard the auto-wallah scream, “Panoti laga di tune……………”



Dodging the bullet

Left work very late around 11:30 pm last Monday. Egged on by the empty-ish roads and a desire to get home and lie down pronto, I was riding in ‘maniac mode’. Applying full throttle in every gear, upshifting at 8000rpm, braking as late and hard as possible. At red lights, I was holding the revs at 6000 rpm, front brake pressed and clutch depressed to its “biting” point. When the light turned green, I would dump the clutch, let go of the brake and gun the throttle as smoothly as possible, with all intentions to test the claimed 4.4 seconds 0-60 time of my humble Gixxer. Was an exhilarating experience, to say the least!

Exiting the highway, I slowed down considerably and then after a few minutes of sedate riding, I hear the familiar dug-dug of a RE behind me. We stop at the Juhu circle signal. There’s a couple riding on a blinged out bullet with black rims, that irritating fire cracker sounding exhaust and 10,000 auxiliary lights. They have a 5-6-year-old boy sitting between them. The rider is wearing a construction hard hat instead of a helmet and that smiling skull bandana over his face. Both adults on the bullet are giving me the stink eye.

Kid: Dada what is he (pointing at my riding gear) wearing?

Hard-hat: (still staring at me) He is a show-off. Real men don't need to wear all that. Only show offs who are racers wear such things.

I chuckled under my helmet, but didn't say anything.

Kid: that's why we lost the “race”?

Hard-hat: ………... don't worry, we have a real man’s bike and he has a toy bike. We also have mummy and he doesn't have anyone so we win.

Mrs. Hard-hat lets out a snort of derision at this passive-aggresive jibe.

I decide it's not worth my time to respond to this guy and wait patiently for the light to turn green with folded arms. Meanwhile an Activa comes up to my right and it's rider launches an expletive filled tirade at Mr Hard Hat, who in turn responds with an equally expletive filled riposte.

I obviously cannot post that here, but the gist was that the bullet rider was trying to “race” me, and had been jumping signals trying to catch up with me and almost collided with the scooter, who in turn had gone out of his way to give the bullet guy a piece of his mind. To say I was stunned, would be an understatement! As I did not even see the bullet in my RVM even once. It would have been umissable with all its lights.

The signal turned green and I left the two to their shouting match, wondering what kind of example Hard-hat was setting for his child. I was quite literally, although inadvertently dodging a bullet……

Interesting times we live in, where one’s masculinity is decided by his choice of motorcycles and if one can jump signals of goaded by fellow motorists. We also seem to believe that riding gear is synonymous with “racing”. Wonder if we could have a discussion about how much of a part this kind of toxic masculinity has to play in cases of accidents, road rage and the general unpleasantness we experience on the roads on a daily basis.

[blackwasp]

Last night a bunch of us cycle friends decided to hangout after work and an impromptu dinner was planned as well.

As the location was just 10 km away, I decided to go on my cycle. Even at 8.30 pm, there was some traffic but I was keeping left and moving ahead of them. On one of the signals on the Palm beach road (it was red, so I was waiting like others), one chap on a bike comes besides me and tell me its illegal to cycle on this road. He goes on to explain that we slow riders are a hazard to ourselves as well as others... bla bla.... and so on. Frankly I was just saying Ok and trying to avoid an altercation. Also noticed he wasn't wearing a helmet and his rear lights were also not functional.

The signal turned green and I left. Naturally the biker overtook me and I thought good riddance. At he next signal I see him standing on the extreme left with a cop beside him . By the time I reached, it was red again so I slowed down and saw that the cop was a regular one on that spot. I waved to him and and he too said hello. Looks like this pissed off the biker and he started telling the cop to book me as cycles are not allowed on any roads.

The cop said he's wearing a helmet, has functional front and rear lights, stops at signals.. On the other hand you don't have a helmet and rear lights. Lights became green and I left the biker getting mad at the back.

[locusjag]

These are a couple of heartwarming experiences I've had with Royal Enfield Bullet riders way back in the day (2006-2010), before there existed a Classic model. RE motorcycles commonly seen on the roads were either Standards, Electras or Thunderbirds.

Incident 1: It was 2006. I was walking along a narrow road in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, on which the pavements were crowded out by vendors of various sorts. The road was further crowded out by parked cars on both sides. So it came to be that I was walking along the single carriageway that the road was reduced to. The usual thing happened - angry motorists would honk at me or just sideswipe me with impunity.

Along came one Bullet rider. He looked young, smart and had casuals and a helmet on. He stopped his motorcycle at a point where the road was not narrow and he called me out to walk and get out of the narrow corridor quickly :"please come sir, I'll wait"

Other vehicles were held up behind by him. But he didn't care about them. Neither did they harass him for blocking the way.

Now that's whom I call a real man.

Incident 2: I was on my Honda Unicorn in 2009, just 2 Km away from home in Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai, and was at the tail-end of a 770 Km roadtrip home from Manipal, on the West coast. I had my helmet, Cramster riding jacket and gloves on. There was a lot of red dust on me, courtesy the red soil native to the Mangalore/Sakleshpura region. I had bags tied on with bungee cords. We were all waiting at a traffic light. There were two Bullet motorcycles ahead of me, with a rider seated on each and we all paid no mind seemingly to each other.

When the light went green, the two Bulleteers parted way to allow me to get ahead. One of them gave me a thumbs-up and a smile. Then they began riding behind me on either side, sort of forming a flank for a little while before turning into a street.

You couldn't buy a Bullet if you wanted to in those days. Waiting periods were a year long. And at the same time, Bullets were to be feared as unforgiving machines. So to start with, you had this kind of a mystical haze surrounding these motorcycles.

But moreover, moments of truth like these made me form an extremely good opinion of who Bullet riders were back then. Men who rode these mythical machines used to behave like enlightened macho men. Can't say the same these days especially now that every other motorcycle out there is a Bullet.

[airguitar]

This isn't heartwarming but an annoying one.

I was on a family trip (4 of us, the fourth is a baby of 8 months ) and at a faroff backwater place that offers boating. Charge per boat is Rs.1100 and you have the boat for yourself. I find this single gentleman approaching me and asking if he can join us as getting one whole boat for himself at Rs.1100 might not have seemed worth it.

Having been on the receiving end many times when I could have done with some help on my trips, I didn't hesitate to say a 'Yes'. The gentleman is happy and dishes out a Rs.50 note to me. I look at him quizzically- I wasn't expecting any cash but the fact that he was giving me a Rs.50 note didn't make much sense - either he takes it as a favour and pays me nothing or pays me 1100 divided by 5 if he were that honest - i felt a little insulted at the gesture . Finally I took the amount rather grudgingly ( I shouldn't have ). Later, I got to know that he was staying at one of the high-end hotels nearby - so much for the Rs.50.

We city dwellers lack grace and commonsense on most occasions. Neither are we good at being graceful when giving nor are we when receiving. We don't understand humanity.

[arun_josie]

Very precise timings from the TNSTC. 3.33 hrs for salem to bangalore

[DWind]

Originally Posted by arun_josie

Very precise timings from the TNSTC. 3.33 hrs for salem to bangalore

He has expressed 3 hrs and 20 min in decimals. Maybe he qualifies for Math's teacher job.

[Miyata]

This happened quite a few months back. We finished our weekend grocery shopping and I was taking the cart to the car parked far end of the parking lot - my way of getting some extra exercise! My wife was staying back at the entrance/exit of the market so I had to pick her up on the way out.

On the way to the car park, I turned back to see if I could spot my wife and to see where exactly she might be standing. Had to do this a couple of times since I couldn't spot her. After about 3-times or so of doing this I hear a female voice sounding apologetic and being very very polite. I turned back and the lady again profusely apologizes saying she wasn't following me etc.

I had a hearty laugh and explained to her why I was looking back multiple times!

Later it got me thinking though as to why people can be so insecure about smallest of things. It's a thought that would not even occur to me. Different people grow up with different experiences and that has a strange way shaping our subjective views on the world around us.

[esoticoreventon]

This happened last week on my way back home from work. I noticed a VW polo behind me, being driven by a lady, who was on a call on the car's Bluetooth system. She hadn't turned her headlights on. I wanted to tell her that. And as luck would have it, at the next signal, she happened to be to my right, diagonally behind me. I rolled down my window and proceeded to show her the Indian hand gesture for headlights. She looked at me and her expression was that of shock. It was then that I realized what a rude thing I was doing! Then pointed to her headlights and then she got it. Promptly turned them on, gave me a thumbs up and went back to her call.

I still don't know if I should laugh at this, or think about how badly this could have ended for me.

[lambuhere1]

Originally Posted by esoticoreventon

TI still don't know if I should laugh at this, or think about how badly this could have ended for me.

Exactly the same thing happened last month. Was scared to indicate the about the headlights. Moved aside and let the lady go ahead.

Believe one should learn motor sign language to indicate things, like door being open, saree stuck out of door, etc.

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by esoticoreventon

This happened last week on my way back home from work. I noticed a VW polo behind me, being driven by a lady, who was on a call on the car's Bluetooth system. She hadn't turned her headlights on. I wanted to tell her that. And as luck would have it, at the next signal, she happened to be to my right, diagonally behind me. I rolled down my window and proceeded to show her the Indian hand gesture for headlights. She looked at me and her expression was that of shock. It was then that I realized what a rude thing I was doing! Then pointed to her headlights and then she got it. Promptly turned them on, gave me a thumbs up and went back to her call.

I still don't know if I should laugh at this, or think about how badly this could have ended for me.

I have had the same experience with an oncoming bike back when I was in DU. I believe the hand raised blink-blink message is the same that you used, in my case unfortunately it became a full blown fracas in the college parking lot before some 3rd year seniors intervened and literally forced us to laugh at the "misunderstanding".