[ninjatalli]

This was over a decade ago when my team was working on a project with a Canadian bank client. One of my colleagues had to travel for a short duration to Toronto and flew down over the weekend. This colleague was from Punjab, and not married - both very important for the next part

She landed at the airport, got through the immigration and baggage sections and caught a taxi to her hotel. Turned out the driver was a slightly aged Punjabi who very quickly realized his customer was also from the same state as him. And throughout the entire journey started a conversation that ranged from him giving details about his history (and his family's transition to Canaaaida) to questions to her about her hometown, family and work. Him being a fatherly figure, my colleague didn't feel any concern giving her details and had a nice long conversation; and very soon they were about to reach her hotel when the conversation took a funny turn.

He started talking about his son for whom they were actively looking for a girl for some time and he wanted to push the case with my colleague!!! The poor girl did not at all foresee this and was at a loss for words. She feebly said no saying she already had a boyfriend and would be living in India only. She quickly exited the taxi asking the fare, to which he refused saying 'apno sae kya paise lena' (translation: who takes money from one's close ones/family) and shared his contact details reiterating her to reconsider his 'offer' of marriage over the time she's there, saying he was more than ok initiating the conversation with her parents.

Needless to say, that never happened!

[silvercloud]

Spotted this Nano rooftop garden in Cubbon Park, Bengaluru today. Seeing this for the first time.

[Motor_Nut]

This incident happened in summers of late 1990s/early2000s and till date, it remains the most scary and spooky experience I ever faced on the road.

So, there was a marriage near Nahan and as is the norm in Himachal, marriages are mostly solemnized during late nights. My father was posted in Solan and our jeep for some reason could not be made available until late evening that day, that means we could start our journey from Solan very late, may be around 9 pm or so if I recall correctly.

Shortest route from Solan to Nahan is Solan>Kumarhatt>Naina Tikkar>Nahan, alternate longer route is via Chandigarh. With hesitation, we opted for shorter route. This route though shorter but was a isolated one at the time. There were few villages which lied on this road, even fewer shops and dhabbas. Such was the isolation of this route that during night, only few Himachal Roadways bus services ruled these roads which connected capitol city Shimla and other places with Haridwar & Dehradun.

We were three souls in the jeep, driver, my relative and myself. After taking a diversion from Kumarhatti, we kept on driving in isolation for 10-15 kms, but I could sense the tension in the cabin. As it happened, there was a small house along the road which had a dim bulb glowing outside. We stopped and thought of asking about road condition from the house resident(s). Upon hearing the engine sound, a suspicious looking man (or we thought so) came out of the house and started questioning us.

After getting convinced, he said that we should have avoided this route in dead of the night. Nevertheless, told us to carry on but to ensure that we must be carrying a spare tyre and sufficient fuel, which we were. His last words of advice were to not to stop on the way, no matter what and try to get ahead of a HRTC bus, which as per him had left a while ago.

We were relived a bit and thought of catching up with the bus. Driver started driving the jeep spiritedly and after few kilometers itself, what we saw ahead, baffled us a bit. We could see rear of a HRTC bus with red glowing lights, bus itself was not clearly visible due to tree silhouettes and hill turns. Now, all good until here, I told the driver to get past of the bus.

Here comes the scary party, we could not understand why, but jeep failed to catch up with this bus. We could see tail lights clearly for couple of times more and it looked like rear of a HRTC bus. But then after few glimpses, bus was no where to be seen! Drive drove like crazy in an attempt to get pass the bus, remember, inner mountain roads are twisty and narrow. But we never made past the bus and bus could never have been driven that fast. We were shit scared and were convinced that we just suffered a ghostly experience . Fortunately no further untoward incident happened and we reached our destination safely past midnight.

Only logical justification could be that if it was a bus or a truck or whatever, it diverted off to a branch road, which we might have missed completely in pursuit of the bus. I would like to also point out here to our readers that one should not have any fear while traveling/driving in Himachal, whether its day or night. Its safe to drive but on isolated roads, its advisable to carry sufficient fuel, spares and drive in a vehicle which is well maintained.

[Shumi_21]

Saved by Good? Fortune(r)

I was leaving office on my motorcycle after yet another monotonous day at work. Traffic was heavy but constantly in motion. I was riding at a slow-ish pace on the left-most lane, as I had a pillion on this time and I wanted to make most of the amazing company I had.

A Fortuner, driving parallel to me cut me off in true SUV style, forcing me to hit the brakes hard. The Fortuner sped away, but stopped abruptly a few metres ahead a with thudding noise. This forced me to brake harder, barely managing to stop millimetres before rear ending the Fortuner.

The reason for the Fortuner’s abrupt stoppage was a perpendicularly parked Celerio, which was hiding between a long line of parallel parked cars. Moreover, it was parked poorly, crammed between two cars, leaving barely any room on either side. The Celerio’s rear was facing the road, so the driver was basically reversing blindly into perpendicularly oncoming traffic! As he did, the Fortuner having just accelerated could not brake in time and ended up hitting the Celerio.

If the Fortuner had not cut me off, it could very well have been me hitting the Celerio with my Gixxer, and the consequences would have been dire to say the least. I was saved by my good Fortune(r)!!


Rainy Road Romance:

This was one of those rare Saturdays when I had a date. She suggested a road trip to, so that “we could enjoy the rains”. I promptly showed up at her door with my motorcycle and a spare helmet. The look of disappointment on her face made me wonder how does one enjoy the rain without getting wet. Anyway, she reluctantly got on the motorcycle, and we headed straight back to my house, where I traded my Gixxer for my i20, and headed off towards Lonavala to live the cliché of a long drive in the monsoons.

As expected with clichés, they are a lot common than we think and we were promptly stuck behind a lot of cars who were surprise-surprise heading to Lonavala, while the bikes bobbed and weaved around us. I gave my date the best “I told you so” look I could come up with & she for her part did a really good job of ignoring it altogether while posting #RoadTrip selfies on Instagram. This dating thing is over-rated, I tell you! After about 20 odd minutes in B2B traffic, the roads finally cleared up and so did my mood. I was beginning to enjoy the drive despite awkwardly smiling and giving the thumbs up pose hundreds of times. What good is a road trip if you do not have the perfect selfie(s), am I right?

After the agonizing selfie-session, my attention was back to the road once more, where I saw a Ritz driving very slowly, compared to the average speed on the road and also cutting lanes without any indications. All tell tale signs of a distracted driver. I honked and flashed my passing lights and pushed the accelerator, but the stupid Ritz came right back into my path again! It took a good 5 second honk from me to get it out of my lane. As I passed it, I saw the driver was really distracted, by virtue of his SO, who was uhhh, between him and the steering wheel. Me and my date were totally like “WTH are they thinking!” With a lot more expletives obviously.

After passing the lovey-dovey Ritz, I let out a small laugh, now amused by what I just saw, and she reciprocated with a blushed smile of her own and finally said, “You better not be getting any ideas Shumi!” I honestly wasn’t getting any “ideas” up to that point. But as I started getting the ideas, she placed her hand on my left hand resting on the gear stick and said, “At least not until the car is moving.”

Well, I finally understood how one enjoys the rains without getting wet!

[gkveda]

Originally Posted by Shumi_21

Saved by Good? Fortune(r)


Rainy Road Romance:

I am sorry, this is offtopic Both are not heart warming. These need to be under bad drivers thread

[SideView]

The event I am about to narrate happened yesterday.

Normally the bus I go in the driver kinda drives it kindof rashly. Honking multiple times unwantedly every second and cutting of vehicles and bullying his way through traffic.

As i was checking out my messages in my mobile suddenly I felt no usual sounds which is normal in Bangalore traffic. No honking from the driver even through he isn’t moving and no honking from the cars and bikes nearby even though they are all blocked.

When I look in front, what I notice is a boy is holding his hand up and crossing the road with a very old lady. He crosses the road with her and then goes back to the other side waving his hands with a smile on his face like he has no care in the world.

Which is when I notice a policeman who was standing in middle of divider blow the whistle, then the normal chaos and noise returns and everything continues as earlier.

Kudos to the kid

But for those 5 mins I felt there is some good in all of us, we just to bury it within. Watching the whole scenario unfold gave me a warm fuzzy feeling so had to share.

[ninjatalli]

I'm visiting my friends and the whole trip is focused on their delightful three year old daughter who is happily chatting with anyone and everyone she meets. Just then the kiddo sneezes. Both the parents have been actively teaching her manners and expanding on her vocabulary.
Friend's wife (W) : What do we say when we sneeze?
Kid (K) : Sorry.
W : Very good.

We head out to the neighborhood shopping mall and on the way, my friend almost cuts through a red light.
Friend (F) : SHIT! That was a close one.
Me (M) : Yea, you were lucky!

We land up at the mall and move around. In the lift, another gentleman smiles at the kiddo and says hi to her.
M : What do we say when someone greets us?
K : (Very proudly) SHIIT!

We both look at each and then together start laughing, along with the gentleman. My poor friend, who's completely mortified, explains to him what had happened, and then focuses on the kiddo to correct her recent 'learning'.

[jailbird_fynix]

This happened at Kochi. They were transporting trucks that had been confiscated by the police like this (pic). At one point, it scraped the under-surface of a metro station and thus at the next station, they had to unload the two smaller trucks first before they could move on.

[libranof1987]

The funniest thing you'll read today.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...aign=TOIMobile

[paragsachania]

Originally Posted by libranof1987

The funniest thing you'll read today.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...aign=TOIMobile

Apart from the reason mentioned there are a lot of other use cases with this product that works as a jugaad in situations where parts are unavailable for your vehicle during SOS. I have myself come across a lot of such episodes in real life mostly when someone bas shared it online.

But I am not sure if this is a written rule.

[Tom Sooraj]

I think this is the most appropriate title to post it.

Came across this on the internet.

https://youtu.be/SVGgvevWnls

[swissknife]

Originally Posted by Tom Sooraj

I think this is the most appropriate title to post it.

Came across this on the internet.

This is nothing short of being lunatic. The things that people do to get visibility on social media is crazy. All involved in this need to be pulled up and punished severely for endangering people including themselves.

[Col Mehta]

What could be one of the craziest things I have come across in a long time, traffic cops stop a Ford Ecosport owner for factory fitted stepney, calling it illegal. I mean common guys! you need to be from some another planet to call it an illegal aftermarket fitment. These cops must have seen tons of Ecosports on our roads already. Either they were not in their senses or they had their share of targets to be achieved.

Thankfully, they didn't try to open the boot because the way it opens (unconventionally), they would have confiscated the vehicle!

Absolutely ludicrous!


https://www.cartoq.com/cops-stop-for...t-illegal/amp/

[GTO]

Only in India for sure! A poor lady being transported in a Santro's boot . Her expression says its all:

[condor]

Originally Posted by Col Mehta

What could be one of the craziest things I have come across in a long time, traffic cops stop a Ford Ecosport owner for factory fitted stepney, calling it illegal.

the ecosport is considered sub-4m. It is only because of this that the price is where it is. Now go and check the length of the Ecosport - with and without stepney. Next, check the rules for modifications. Do let us know your findings.