These days my thoughts and blogs are invariably about Bangalore traffic, road conditions. Guess one more blog on this subject doesn't matter.
Since the past few years, I have been driving my car all around South Bangalore. Many including Ani(my wife) and my in-laws have complained/complimented that I have been totally Bangalored in terms of my driving skills. I do take some pride in being able to manouver my Tata Indigo Marina in the narrow confines of Tyagarajanagar, N. R. Colony, Hanumanthnagar - come sun, rain, cow, the odd water tank from opposite side, auto, car or even dug up drains under repair, in my way. I thought I had reached total driving proficiency and, myself as a pretty cool driver until I lost it yesterday.
There are umpteen storm water drains being repaired (in preparation of the coming Corporation elections I presume). I knew the bylanes I was using yesterday quite well. Also, on that road all the repair work was complete, so I confidently made a turn in one of the lanes(less than 5 kms per hour). There was a big jarring sound - immediately I knew my car had brushed against a rock. Stopped my car and found that my car was stuck between a rock and a hard place ! A big rock slab had been left in the edge of the road and it was wedged right underneath my car - tyre to tyre. There was a leak from the front wheel section and though the engine was still running, there was no doubt that a major damage was impending my wallet.
Soon good samaritans from Tyagarajanagar gathered around. Samaritan #1 said, "Sir, diesel is leaking, your car will not even start". I didn't reply to this self proclaimed Auto expert, since I knew my car would start and engine was OK. Samaritan #2 said, "Saar, your car is the fourth car suffering this fate in the past two days". I silently thought - "so kind of letting me know, by the by, what are you doing after so many accidents dummy!" Samaritan #3 coming from the other side on a bike stopped and enquired "Is this car yours? Why didn't you see the rock?". Again I remained silent as I thought "Yes sir, I'll immediately buy the latest gadgets to install floor level cameras and articificial intelligence upgrades to my Tata Car". Samaritan #4 was much better, he happened to be a neighbor of my father in law. He asked me if I needed any help - much better. Samaritan #5 guided me to a neighboring road where drain work was still in progress to go and complain. I knew nothing much was going to happen by complaining, but that was a good suggestion to get some help to get my car unstuck.
With my father-in-law by the side (who had joined after a desperate call to him), we went in search of the BBMP appointed, contractor hired workers who or whose brethern had done this piece of art work. Luckily, they were just a few roads down. When asked to come and help - again various reasons - "Saar, navalla madiddu (we didn't do that road work)", "Writer barabeku (Contractor appointed gang lead has to come)", "Corporation officenalli complain maadi". That is when I completely lost it... To my father-in-law's horror, I started a immediate dharana making them stop work completely and not allowing them to do any more work. What infuriated was the fact that none of them even tried to come take a look and try resolve the situation.
Actually, many of them were quite relieved and stopped work and welcomed their break by unravelling beedies from their pockets.
After 15-30 minutes of my dharana, one of the old guys in the gang relented and agreed to accompany me to where the car had got stuck.
We came to the spot, the old man used his crowbar to nudge the rock to the pavement (which could have been done much before the four cars prior to me were damaged) and my car was free !! The leak was with the power steering fluid. My car did indeed start, steering was not a comfortable thing - but was able to drive it to my trusted Tata mechanic who incidentally is in Tyagarajanagar. Total damage - 4,500 Rupees.
I'm still thinking, we are all a bunch of talk-a-lots. Whenever there is a road accident, we (a generalization of Indian males) derive vicarious pleasure by analysing things, give unsolicited expert advice, blame the Govt. and sundry, blame karma, express lip sympathy but do very little actionable. In this experience, only the old man from the worker gang of 20 was the exception. He had the good sense of not just being sympathetic, but also had the maturity to come take a look and help - instead of just being defensive and be a talk-a-lot.
Ironically, I'm planning to become a "Technical Analyst" starting Monday at Thomson Reuters - guess I could do my job by doing just what most did - talk-a-lot without personally doing nothing about problems, issues and not really resolving anything.
Also, you can call me blog-a-lot !
cheers,
Dheera.
