[flyingkolors]

Dear All,

Would like to bring the following incident to your notice which happened to a dear friend/ colleague of mine.

We generally car pool and go to office since we work in the same office and our work timings are mostly similar. Moreover, he stays in the same apartment as mine. Unfortunately, 2 weeks back, I decided to work from home and my friend left to office.

He was returning from office at around 10.30-11PM in his red Santro with KA registration. By the time he reached the entrance of the BEML gate, the signal lights were not working and there was a big chaos with vehicles travelling in all directions. My friend managed to make his way out of the traffic only to realize that there was bigger traffic jam right opposite to the BEML.

He was waiting in his car for the vehicles in front of him to move. The auto fellow from behind started honking and giving him signals to move forward. It was totally jam packed and there was no way to move forward. The auto guy kept on honking and since my friend could not do much he told him in "hindi" that there is no place to move forward.

God knows what the auto guy thought, he jumped out of his vehicle with a steel rod in his hand and started banging the car with the rod. He hit the back windshield when my friend got down. Since he doesnt know Kannada, he could'nt argue and started shouting at him in Hindi. The autowallah became totally nut by this time, broke the front left window, hit couple of times on the front windshield and hit my friend black and blue. (and this was happening in jam packed traffic and no one came to rescue).

My friend was bleeding and since he couldn't do much, just went back to his car and noted down the auto number. He called me after moving forward and the traffic was cleared. I jumped from home at 11PM and went only to see my buddy injured in his head, shoulders and back. I rushed him to hospital, parked his car in our apartment and went directly to Jeevanbhimanagar PS (that was closest) and lodged a complaint.

The cops there started questioning me if my friend was drunk, if he had scolded the auto wallah in hindi and so on

Finally, I came of out that place only to reach home at 1AM. My friend was in hospital for a week with multiple stitches on his forehead, and left shoulder. The cops could not arrest the auto guy till date.

Apparently, my friend was totally shaken with the incident.

My sincere appeal to all the Bhp'ians out there, pls be careful while dealing with the autowallahs in Bangalore and not to get into any arguments with them. They can be life threatening.

Drive safe.

[benbsb29]

If you have a complaint copy registered with the police as well as hospital bills to prove your case, please send the details to Bangalore Mirror newspaper along with the registration number of the auto. You could see some action. However, your friend should be ready for the publicity.

[Mpower]

This is very disturbing to hear. Is this a lawless country or what.

Definitely like Ben said, send a copy of this to all local papers. The cops will take action only when there is some kind of public pressure.

[mjothi]

very bad & sad incident.

But its surprising to hear that he got this treatment just because he spoke in hindi. Something else should have provoked the auto guy, or the auto guy should have been drunk.

Either case, this is terrible. Seems guys alone in car are more prone to all such stunts. Seems car pool is a must in Bangalore, if you leave office late.

[ghodlur]

Things are getting worse day by day in the metros. Today its the rick guy, tomorrow it may be the two wheeler guy and god knows next.

Hard to believe - the road rage is slowly taking over. All I can say is hope you friend has a fast recovery and leaves thos nasty memories behind and moves on. BTW what was the total damage to the vehicle.

[Lukeskywalker]

Sad to hear about the incident, I would suggest you contact the DCP of your area if the police personnel at the local police station are trying to drag their feet.

People are getting more and more impatient everyday, yesterday afternoon, while I was stuck in a jam near Mantri Square, a two wheeler rider with family on board started banging on my Safari asking me to move when there was no place to even inch forward, gave him a piece of my mind but it did not seem to have any effect on him, he just squeezed his way bumping and brushing against vehicles and looked very triumphant that he managed to get ahead of me by a few metres.

[Sudarshan]

You may not like my ways , but its real life .

People have tried to threaten me some times ( thrice precisely ) but they failed as I keep a good long thick pipe in the Jeep/Landy ( basically as leverage to un do wheel nuts ) & never hesitated in displaying it ,when time came.

It worked as a good deterrent , once I even challenged two fellas that what ever they do to me I will at least take one along with me . This happened on highway with a truck driver .

No one helps you , try to go away from the scene, never get out of the car,but never go against mob . if nothing works show them the real deterrent as I did ,it worked .( if you are that kind of person )

Now if the police is not working ,try & get help from the political activists in your area. Or lodge a private complaint in courts.

One can defend ones life ( with appropriate force ) , law permits it .

Sudarshan

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by flyingkolors

The auto guy kept on honking and since my friend could not do much he told him in "hindi" that there is no place to move forward.

God knows what the auto guy thought, he jumped out of his vehicle with a steel rod in his hand and started banging the car with the rod. He hit the back windshield when my friend got down. Since he doesnt know Kannada, he could'nt argue and started shouting at him in Hindi. The autowallah became totally nut by this time, broke the front left window, hit couple of times on the front windshield and hit my friend black and blue. (and this was happening in jam packed traffic and no one came to rescue).

My friend was bleeding and since he couldn't do much, just went back to his car and noted down the auto number. I rushed him to hospital, parked his car in our apartment and went directly to Jeevanbhimanagar PS (that was closest) and lodged a complaint.

The cops there started questioning me if my friend was drunk, if he had scolded the auto wallah in hindi and so on

Apparently, my friend was totally shaken with the incident.

My sincere appeal to all the Bhp'ians out there, pls be careful while dealing with the autowallahs in Bangalore and not to get into any arguments with them. They can be life threatening.

What this has to do with Hindi ? No wonder, my friend did not accept a good opportunity in Bangalore because he was feeling insecure.

This mentality will eventually hit our nation's progress in the long run.

However:
Why your friend did not defend himself ?
Ask him to have toolkit with him so that he can take out atleast some tool to defend.

On the other hand what amazes me is our police. No action. What if some big shot politicians son or somebody had even a slight scratch ?
I even wonder what would have happened if your friend had beaten the auto driver back. The Hindi parameter would be back on top.

Its way too chaotic all over.

Originally Posted by Mpower

This is very disturbing to hear. Is this a lawless country or what.

Mpower sir, if we look over our shoulders we realize that this is really a lawless country. Daily there are news of scandals and in-human crimes in " Shining India " which has a rich culture.

Carrying a stick does help. Never get down from car as long as possible. Crowded street or empty streets does not make any difference in this country.

If a person has a weapon with him like stick or anything, he must know how to use the same else things can get even worse.

[Newpunter]

I think it would be better to post the number of the Auto guy here in this thread, so that we can be on the lookout for the guy. Sad to see the lawlessness in Bangalore these days.

[Chetan_Rao]

If the guy had retaliated, I bet every auto driver in the vicinity would've jumped in to defend their comrade-in-arms.

As much as their mob-mentality may be disturbing, they at least defend their own guy if he's in trouble. More than what we can say for ourselves.

We just look the other way and pretend to be Gandhi's 3 monkeys.

[amitoj]

Your friend got down from the car to talk to an auto driver who has gone berserk with a steel rod in his hand? BIG mistake.
It is better to let your car take a beating instead of you, however much it may hurt your feelings.
Saw the news today morning about a rowdy/corporater who was hacked down in Banashankari? Guess what was his occupation when he entered crime. Autorickshaw driver.

[download2live]

I cannot understand this drastic reaction on part of auto driver. Is there something more here than meets the eye??

If indeed just a sentence in Hindi was enough was to make the Auto Guy this freaking mad then I am at loss of words to say anything. Hope God recalls his defective creation back soon before he actually murders someone.

And what is this some "Bad news about Bangalore" every Monday???
Are Team-BHPians of Bangalore are most vocal???

[SDP]

Sad and horrified to read this.
In third person accounts, it is easily possible to miss a lot of finer details. With given details, there does not seem any concrete reason for the over-reaction from the auto-driver.
If the auto-driver was wielding a iron-rod, it was illogical for the victim to come out of the car un-armed. In fact, he coming out would have been seen as a invitation for a physical confrontation. Irrespective of how much you love your car, trying to avoid damage to your car at the risk of personal injury/death is not a good idea.

Sorry for sounding judgemental, that's definitely not the intention. My heart goes out to the victim. Just that I feel, this should have avoided.

Edit -> Just noticed amitoj and partially download2live echoing the same emotions.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by download2live

I cannot understand this drastic reaction on part of auto driver. Is there something more here than meets the eye??

If indeed just a sentence in Hindi was enough was to make the Auto Guy this freaking mad then I am at loss of words to say anything. Hope God recalls his defective creation back soon before he actually murders someone.

And what is this some "Bad news about Bangalore" every Monday???
Are Team-BHPians of Bangalore are most vocal???

A traffic jam is a tense environment already. Doesn't take much to tick someone off.

Even in calmer situations, auto drivers are always ready to pick a fight, with or without provocation. They wouldn't mind using your mere presence on 'their' road as an excuse to start a fight. Even God won't help you if you happen to be an 'outsider'.

[whitemm550]

Originally Posted by Sudarshan

You may not like my ways , but its real life .

People have tried to threaten me some times ( thrice precisely ) but they failed as I keep a good long thick pipe in the Jeep/Landy ( basically as leverage to un do wheel nuts ) & never hesitated in displaying it ,when time came.

It worked as a good deterrent , once I even challenged two fellas that what ever they do to me I will at least take one along with me . This happened on highway with a truck driver .

No one helps you , try to go away from the scene, never get out of the car,but never go against mob . if nothing works show them the real deterrent as I did ,it worked .( if you are that kind of person )

Now if the police is not working ,try & get help from the political activists in your area. Or lodge a private complaint in courts.

One can defend ones life ( with appropriate force ) , law permits it .

Sudarshan

i second that, me too. i keep a steel rod in my vehicles as a deterrent too, and will never hesitate to use it if me or my family are attacked, by any idiot/ or idiots