[tuffenberg]

In 2012, I had left my last trading job. Now that I was jobless, a school friend of mine asked me if I would like to do a bike trip from Kerala to Kashmir. To which sane people say no, but I said, why not

So we set off, from Kozhikode in Kerala with destination "somewhere in J&K". We went through Gokarna and Goa to do the usual stuff people do in Gokarna and Goa. Back in the days, I was like a very law abiding goodie boy. My friend, not so much. So he bought stuff he is not supposed to buy in Goa/ Gokarna and carried it with him in his saddleback bag behind his bike.

When we were crossing the Goa Maharashtra border, the cops stopped us at a checkpost. And they asked us to get down from the bike and started searching our bags. I saw a pale look coming on my friend's face and realized what is happening. We are seconds away from trouble. It was exciting in a messed up way, to be honest, though.

One of the cops thought it is a good occasion to make small talk, so he asked, "What do you do for a living?". My friend was a sailor, so he answered, "Merchant Navy"

The next second, the cop took his hands out of the bag, stood in attention, gave us both a salute and said, "Sorry sir"

Before I could react, or my friend could react, I realized what happened. We were dressed in full biker gear - Royal Enfield 500, Cramster Black Jackets, Black Cramster Pants, Aviators, the whole shabang. Our man cop thought we were in the Indian Navy

Can't blame him, given how we looked. He closed our bag, and put it back, and asked us to go.

This should have ended here, but no. As soon as we crossed the barrier at the checkpost, a senior officer calls us from behind and asks us to stop. I thought, "Man this is it, this time we are caught"

And we looked behind. He looked at our KL11 registration and hollered, "Are you guys from Kerala?". We said yes. He gives us a salute too. We saluted him back, and "smiled and waved ", and slowly pulled away again.

Now, this is 2012, and there were no dashcams, or good phones to reproduce this in pictures. So here is a version of me trying to recreate this incident with Dall-E AI


Thank you for reading.

Moral of the story: Please do not carry contraband in your vehicles. And if you do, please make sure you are dressed with Navy swag

[RunGaDa]

I am going to write something different here. It was a realisation of the “past me” against the “present me.”

After driving in the USA 8+ years and then moving back to India, it gets overwhelming as the reverse culture shock of driving hits hard here. I got hot headed, only on city roads. Seen many times, my wife gave me a barometer to control myself. She told me, every day you set the A/C not to cold and half way in the traffic if you start feeling hot, you are getting rage.
This helped me a lot. I was able to keep it cool within a year into driving in India.

Life came full circle one day. I was caught in a traffic jam and saw in my rear view mirror, a super miserable kid honking away, gesturing wildly, I was like what the heck!
Then realised, is it that guy I am watching my rear view mirror, or is it me!!!

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by tuffenberg

So here is a version of me trying to recreate this incident with Dall-E AI

Apologies for the OT but as someone who dabbles fairly regularly with Dall-E I've noticed that it has a very interesting way of rendering fingers. *shivers*

Like an Eldritch horror.

I know the technical reason for the artefacts but it still is freaky.

[tuffenberg]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

Apologies for the OT but as someone who dabbles fairly regularly with Dall-E I've noticed that it has a very interesting way of rendering fingers. *shivers*

Like an Eldritch horror.

I know the technical reason for the artefacts but it still is freaky.

I can't unsee it now

[dust-n-bones]

Another example of the weird affection we Indians have for the word 'puncture'.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by D C

Careful while you park during a stormy weather, I damaged a nice car! And, what followed the incident encouraged me to write this.

My office is very next to the beach and I casually pulled up to a parking spot as usual. That was the day Chennai was experiencing a stormy weather due to a low pressure formed in the Bay of Bengal. Without realizing the intensity of wind outside, I opened the door and the wind was blowing so fast that it forced my door wide open and hit the car parked on the next spot, leaving a dent and a scratch of almost 10 inches. Unfortunately, that was a Jaguar XJL! I identified the owner and walked up to his office to offer an apology and a fix. Since, he was unavailable, I spoke with his Executive Assistant and Admin team. They reviewed the damages, took pictures and informed me that they will get in touch after reviewing it with the owner. They called me back a few hours later indicating that the owner decided to ignore it! The damage doesn’t look good on such a beautifully maintained car, however, in a world where most people make a big fuss about silly things, I am happy to have found a nice gentleman with a positive attitude. He happens to be the Founder and CEO of one of the largest matrimony portal in India!

Saw this 7 year old incident narrated by the matrimony and Jaguar owner in LinkedIn today with reference to this post and how you went on to found a venture along with the trigger from this incident.

Nice and all the best

[rroy92]

Originally Posted by thanixravindran

Saw .... reference to this post and how you went on to found a venture along with the trigger from this incident.

Please share the link. Thanks

[Krish_Diesel]

Originally Posted by HummerH

This Happened last week. For some reason despite many Two-wheeler riders informing the driver about the rear numberplate that was barely holding on and about to fall off, this driver chose to speed away. It was a very strange to me as to why he didnt get down and check when he had enough time at the signal or he could have pulled to the road side and removed the number plate.
He doesn't like his registration number I think.

https://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=35nc1lizmoI

Thats because there are numerous incidents where some bikers stop the cars showing some reason and then they will be looted especially in the night. Maybe the driver thought its one of such case and fled. Good to see that he is very cautious.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by rroy92

Please share the link. Thanks

Please check this

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/murug...member_android

[anjan_c2007]

After I bought my 1955 Landmaster on 08/08/2003 from the first owner (48 years with a single owner) I would take the car for drives to test how trustworthy it was. As the car was parked almost unused since the past two/three years at the owner's home there were bound to be niggles and mega-niggles too. Usually the fuel lines of such cars create issues.

After getting somewhat convinced about its roadworthiness some mutual trust between me and the machine blossomed.

But with this blossoming, surfaced issues. Every rose has its thorns as the old 1980's Bon Jovi hit says. One fine morning in late August 2003, I was ferrying my little daughter to her nursery school when the Landmaster stalled at a traffic junction. I rushed out, opened the bonnet and smelled petrol, finding at least a few litres spilled on the road. The car wouldn't start at all. The traffic junction was a busy one and had one constable on duty. The constable saw my plight and offered to gladly push my car. I too used my strength on the front A pillar to the right, keeping the driver's side door partly open to control the steering, push the car and walk with it. The car reached the kerbside of the street. My little daughter was joyous at the thought of her getting a "Landmaster declared holiday" and was not much concerned. After parking the car, I saw a father and son on a gold coloured Fiat Uno going towards the same nursery school that was still about 3 kms away. The child's T shirt (school uniform) confirmed that he belonged to the same school. I waved for the car to stop. Seeing the old black car's plight (My Lady in Black) the Uno halted. I spoke to the child's father and told him about the issue. He was a gentleman and readily agreed to carry my daughter. Within five minutes my little daughter resumed her school-ward journey on the Uno.

I contacted the workshop where it used to be repaired then and the rescue vehicle came and Landmaster was towed to the workshop that was about two plus kms away from my daughter's school. After reaching the workshop, the fault was traced to a pinhole on the brass float of the fuel chamber of its SU make carburettor. I insisted on the whole fuel line to be checked and petrol tank fully cleaned up, for which the car was to be kept at the workshop for the next few days.

The next immediate issue was ferrying my daughter back home. I told my boss about my predicament on the phone saying that I will work extra hours at office and he was accommodative. After hiring a three wheeler, I reached my daughter's school where the school closure was still about 30 minutes away. So I searched the parking lot and found a white Maruti 800 (forget its registration number) that I would always find zipping past my car on this school route of my daughter, on a regular basis. It used to ferry two nursery kids who lived at some locality beyond our home. I found its driver around and requested him to drop me and my daughter home en route. He was a professional driver engaged by the owner. The driver very readily agreed. The school bells soon rang and the kids rushed out. I and my daughter got seated on the 800's backseat. The two kids also arrived and both occupied the front passenger seat. The driver took out some "Appenlube" candies from his glove box and offered one each to the two kids and to my daughter. The kids' parents would have instructed the driver to offer these candies post school to the kids, before resuming their homeward journey. We were back home. I thanked the driver and waved to the two kids who would be blissfully unaware of the happenings prior to our boarding the Maruti. For my daughter the two kids became "Appenlube Bacche" ( children) thereafter. Even today, I relate the story of the fateful day to her.

But the day evidently became adventurous rather than fateful and happy rather than uncertain due to three good Samaritans who offered to help us. My two cents to them and one cent only to my boss for understanding my plight. The threesome who made my day were the traffic cop (I wished I had a camera to click him pushing the Landmaster donning his uniform), next the kid's father driving the Fiat Uno and lastly the "Appenlube Bacche's" driver.

We always have good Samaritans who rescue us from such predicaments and our luck needs to be favorable so that they come along with a helping hand. They usually do their jobs selflessly expecting nothing in return. My salute to the threesome who made my day. Unfortunately, I neither asked them their names, nor remember their faces now 20 years hence.

[Capri89]

There was this kid, probably in early teen, on a bicycle.
She dropped something that she was holding.
She stopped her cycling, picked it up and moved to the side thereby not holding the flow of traffic.

Very matured road behaviour worth emulating by many pros.

https://youtu.be/zfVD7f3vNpc

[srvm]

Originally Posted by Capri89

There was this kid, probably in early teen, on a bicycle.
She dropped something that she was holding.
She stopped her cycling, picked it up and moved to the side thereby not holding the flow of traffic.

Very matured road behaviour worth emulating by many pros.
.....

Indicates very good parenting / upbringing

[VKumar]

Here is one incident which I'd like to share.

A few days back, we were riding my friend's Carnival in Noida, the chauffy was driving, owner in front seat and we 2 guys in the middle row. The car was overtaking an Octavia when the carnival owner suddenly asked his driver to park on the roadside as he wanted to purchase something, while the driver braked and turned the wheel a bit, the Octavia got hit by the rear section of the Carnival.

My door was blocked as Octavia was right there, and other side the two wheelers started passing, but the Carnival owner quickly went out and and spoke something loudly and tried to correct the ORVM of Octavia.

We asked the driver to park the car ahead and went out to check, it was clear that the ORVM of the Octy was gone as it was no more straight and there were some scratches too. We asked the Carnival owner too to get into the car and we will settle it, which he did. I had already observed that the Octavia has a dash cam too, means there was a potential that our friend may appear on Youtube too next morning

The Octavia had the driver, a young lady, and a 6-7 y.o. kid with him, initially when we asked him to come out, the lady simply denied and said "bhaiya yeh bahar nahi ayenge (he won't come out)" (It was a calm conversation, no loud voices at all). Then we convincingly said "Bhaiya it's our mistake, come, evaluate the damage, and we will instantly pay for it". He came out, the lady started speaking something on which my friend said "Madam we will listen to only one of you, if sir can't decide, you can come and analyze the damage". So the lady was again back in the car. Further it was a light hearted conversation, we got the kid a box of grapes from Carnival which he accepted after his dad asked him to.

Now we asked the Octy owner how much is he expecting for the ORVM replacement and repair of scratches. All he said with a smile was "bhai jo tumhe theek lage de do (give whatever you find right)". So, we paid him 20,000 bucks in cash. Then I asked him to delete the dash cam footage too, which he immediately did.

4 days later - yesterday night, my friend who gave the Octy owner his number citing that "if the cost is more, just call me", received 13,000 bucks back from the Octy owner. On the call, Mr. Simranjeet (He shall know he is being talked about, if he ever reads this post) told my friend that after the insurance claim and even adjusting his NCB too, only 7-8k is the damage to his pocket, so we can have our money back.

Out of gratitude, we have invited him to join us for a dinner over the coming weekend, to which he agreed.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Here is one incident which I'd like to share.

A few days back, we were riding my friend's Carnival in Noida, the chauffy was driving, owner in front seat and we 2 guys in the middle row. The car was overtaking an Octavia when the carnival owner suddenly asked his driver to park on the roadside as he wanted to purchase something, while the driver braked and turned the wheel a bit, the Octavia got hit by the rear section of the Carnival.
.....
Out of gratitude, we have invited him to join us for a dinner over the coming weekend, to which he agreed.

Wow. Just wow Tricky situation dealt with, like responsible adults from both sides. You may have earned a new friend as well

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Here is one incident which I'd like to share...

...Out of gratitude, we have invited him to join us for a dinner over the coming weekend, to which he agreed.

It takes little to make an enemy on the road, it doesn't take much to make a friend either.

Kudos to all involved.