In the midst of heavy rain, we decided to go ahead with the plan. I took my phone and the power bank with me. Raman took his phone. As we stormed down from the stairs, the rain started getting worse. "Are you sure it's a good idea?", I asked him with rain dominating over my voice. "Just a matter of minutes and we will be inside the car", a confident Raman said. "Alright then, let's go ahead with the plan".
READ SIGNS WE IGNORED PART 1
I sat in the back and Raman drove the scooty. There was water everywhere. I was soaked in water in just a few minutes. I tried to hide behind Raman as much as I could, but the weather was so damn bad, I could not escape. I was wondering how my friend was fighting with those thorny little drops. It was around 1.6 km in distance including all the U-Turns and service lane cuts. Finally, we reached our destination.
"We have a booking for Tata Bolt," I said in a slightly louder tone to the Drivezy agent. "Yeah, This is your car, you can self-check-in through the mobile app and take it." He said and ran below the shelter. His work was done. I was drenched in the water and so was Raman. I ran towards the car and sat on the driver seat as fast as I could. I turned the heater on to the maximum temperature. Raman sat beside me. I unlocked the car, uploaded the images and started our journey. God had planned it just for us. It has been only 5 minutes since we have picked up the car and the speed of rain slowed down. A lot actually. But the weather made a perfect condition for creating steam inside the windshield. It was so steamy that it was impossible to see anything ahead. Raman got scared due to it. He used his shirt as the mop and mopped the windshield from inside and outside. But it did not work for long. The windshield again had steam all inside it. We turned on the AC. We turned on the heater. Nothing happened. Since Raman's mopping had helped a lot, we drove further ahead.
Twenty minutes into the journey, we are chatting about the weather and what it had done to us. It was a silent and broad beautiful road. The temperature was perfect and the breeze was cool. I pushed down my window glass to feel the air. Raman was too relaxed with his foot on the seat and searching for something in the glovebox. "I enjoyed the rain like this after a long time, Raman." "Me too. Actually, I think it just poured for us. Look outside, the rain has almost stopped." "Yeah, but the weather is perfect for Nandi Hills, it has rained, the clouds will be down and the scenery will be beautiful." "I have been in Bangalore for so long but have never been to Nandi Hills," Raman said. He continued to speak but I suddenly saw something else in front of me. I saw a car. A red car which had suddenly stopped. It was a time that I saw the car from a distance but it felt like moving and when I got closer to it, I realised, actually, it is not. I could see the car but the distance was not too less. At least not at an extent that will frighten me. I applied the breaks. We were around 5 seconds apart when I applied the breaks. Suddenly something broke. I felt it. It was the breaks. They felt loose. I pressed them as hard as I could to the full extent but they did not apply. I mean they were getting applied but not how they should. I think the wire broke. And then I felt the car sliding onto the road due to the water like a roller skate. I could see the car getting bigger and bigger in front of me. We were too close. Too close to do anything. I was 5 seconds apart when I saw the car slowing down. 3 when I realised brakes have left me to my fate. 1 when I realised the car is sliding. Those 5 seconds felt like 20 to me. The thing was, this was not a sudden accident. It was something I knew what was going to happen. I knew where I am going and I could not do anything about it. Those five seconds!! I wish I could have turned to Raman and see his face. The time was too short. We slid onto the road with failed breaks and BAAAM!! The child sleeping on the backseat jumped to the gearbox. He literally jumped due to force.
"Should we run or stay", Raman questioned. "No, we will stay, we should not run," I said as I felt running after hitting the car is bad. We both pulled over. I got out and saw the car. Both of ours. Our car was ruined. The bonnet broke and the bumper looked like some old guy is smiling without the teeth. I saw his number plate. TS. I relaxed as his car was from a different state. Telangana to be exact. I knew something right there. Police will favour me. I am from this state plus I was not drunk. I had all the papers in the car and I had the driving licence. That TS made me think so much in a split second. It was a family of four. Two boys with their parents were travelling back to their home after visiting Bangalore. The man did not know Hindi. Quite understandable. The man did not know English too. Now, how will we communicate? I am so against this. I wrote another post just to raise this gap that we Indians have.(Link Here) Thankfully, the elder boy knew some broken Hindi and broken English. He became the translator. The man was so angry at us, he blamed everything that has been going wrong with his car on us. He said we broke the camera and the light sensors. Both of these components were untouched by our car. He was taking advantage. "Give me 15000 INR and Go!!", He said in anger.
"Are you kidding? 15000?" I said. "Yes, you don't know how much expensive this car is (it was worth 5-6 lakh) and with how much care I keep it". He had the insurance. We defended by telling the situation that we faced and argued that we can give only 4000 for the damages. "I am calling the police.", He said. Raman took me to the roadside. "We will get stuck in the police case. It won't be good". He whispered. "We are not drunk, we have the papers, we have the licence and the brakes are not working. On what grounds will the police charge?" I said again in anger. "Are you sure?" "Yes, definitely. We are from Bangalore Raman, the policeman will favour us as we are from his state. They are from another state. Don't worry." I assured him. "Go ahead call the police!!" I said to the man. It was 4:30 in the morning. The colour of the sky was fading. The policeman came after 20 minutes.
"Yes, What Happened?" "We banged our car to their due to this and that and that...". "Is this true?" He asked the man. He looked in his eyes and then here and there. He did not speak. He did not know English. "Officer, he doesn't know English, Hindi or Kannada," I told him. The policeman smiled and said to me I also don't know Kannada. "Really?" I smiled and asked. "Yeah! I just got transferred here. I don't speak Kannada". He said calmly. "Oh! What do you speak then?" I tried to take ahead our conversation. "Telugu", He said. Lots of thoughts started running in my mind. Negative of course. The man had a smile on his face. A weird suspicious smile. I asked one last question and hoping the answer not to be what I am thinking. "Where are you from, officer?". "Telangana buddy".
I looked at Raman who was already looking at me and his eyes told me the real story, "We are fucked!!."
READ SIGNS WE IGNORED PART 1
I sat in the back and Raman drove the scooty. There was water everywhere. I was soaked in water in just a few minutes. I tried to hide behind Raman as much as I could, but the weather was so damn bad, I could not escape. I was wondering how my friend was fighting with those thorny little drops. It was around 1.6 km in distance including all the U-Turns and service lane cuts. Finally, we reached our destination.
"We have a booking for Tata Bolt," I said in a slightly louder tone to the Drivezy agent. "Yeah, This is your car, you can self-check-in through the mobile app and take it." He said and ran below the shelter. His work was done. I was drenched in the water and so was Raman. I ran towards the car and sat on the driver seat as fast as I could. I turned the heater on to the maximum temperature. Raman sat beside me. I unlocked the car, uploaded the images and started our journey. God had planned it just for us. It has been only 5 minutes since we have picked up the car and the speed of rain slowed down. A lot actually. But the weather made a perfect condition for creating steam inside the windshield. It was so steamy that it was impossible to see anything ahead. Raman got scared due to it. He used his shirt as the mop and mopped the windshield from inside and outside. But it did not work for long. The windshield again had steam all inside it. We turned on the AC. We turned on the heater. Nothing happened. Since Raman's mopping had helped a lot, we drove further ahead.
Twenty minutes into the journey, we are chatting about the weather and what it had done to us. It was a silent and broad beautiful road. The temperature was perfect and the breeze was cool. I pushed down my window glass to feel the air. Raman was too relaxed with his foot on the seat and searching for something in the glovebox. "I enjoyed the rain like this after a long time, Raman." "Me too. Actually, I think it just poured for us. Look outside, the rain has almost stopped." "Yeah, but the weather is perfect for Nandi Hills, it has rained, the clouds will be down and the scenery will be beautiful." "I have been in Bangalore for so long but have never been to Nandi Hills," Raman said. He continued to speak but I suddenly saw something else in front of me. I saw a car. A red car which had suddenly stopped. It was a time that I saw the car from a distance but it felt like moving and when I got closer to it, I realised, actually, it is not. I could see the car but the distance was not too less. At least not at an extent that will frighten me. I applied the breaks. We were around 5 seconds apart when I applied the breaks. Suddenly something broke. I felt it. It was the breaks. They felt loose. I pressed them as hard as I could to the full extent but they did not apply. I mean they were getting applied but not how they should. I think the wire broke. And then I felt the car sliding onto the road due to the water like a roller skate. I could see the car getting bigger and bigger in front of me. We were too close. Too close to do anything. I was 5 seconds apart when I saw the car slowing down. 3 when I realised brakes have left me to my fate. 1 when I realised the car is sliding. Those 5 seconds felt like 20 to me. The thing was, this was not a sudden accident. It was something I knew what was going to happen. I knew where I am going and I could not do anything about it. Those five seconds!! I wish I could have turned to Raman and see his face. The time was too short. We slid onto the road with failed breaks and BAAAM!! The child sleeping on the backseat jumped to the gearbox. He literally jumped due to force.
"Should we run or stay", Raman questioned. "No, we will stay, we should not run," I said as I felt running after hitting the car is bad. We both pulled over. I got out and saw the car. Both of ours. Our car was ruined. The bonnet broke and the bumper looked like some old guy is smiling without the teeth. I saw his number plate. TS. I relaxed as his car was from a different state. Telangana to be exact. I knew something right there. Police will favour me. I am from this state plus I was not drunk. I had all the papers in the car and I had the driving licence. That TS made me think so much in a split second. It was a family of four. Two boys with their parents were travelling back to their home after visiting Bangalore. The man did not know Hindi. Quite understandable. The man did not know English too. Now, how will we communicate? I am so against this. I wrote another post just to raise this gap that we Indians have.(Link Here) Thankfully, the elder boy knew some broken Hindi and broken English. He became the translator. The man was so angry at us, he blamed everything that has been going wrong with his car on us. He said we broke the camera and the light sensors. Both of these components were untouched by our car. He was taking advantage. "Give me 15000 INR and Go!!", He said in anger.
"Are you kidding? 15000?" I said. "Yes, you don't know how much expensive this car is (it was worth 5-6 lakh) and with how much care I keep it". He had the insurance. We defended by telling the situation that we faced and argued that we can give only 4000 for the damages. "I am calling the police.", He said. Raman took me to the roadside. "We will get stuck in the police case. It won't be good". He whispered. "We are not drunk, we have the papers, we have the licence and the brakes are not working. On what grounds will the police charge?" I said again in anger. "Are you sure?" "Yes, definitely. We are from Bangalore Raman, the policeman will favour us as we are from his state. They are from another state. Don't worry." I assured him. "Go ahead call the police!!" I said to the man. It was 4:30 in the morning. The colour of the sky was fading. The policeman came after 20 minutes.
"Yes, What Happened?" "We banged our car to their due to this and that and that...". "Is this true?" He asked the man. He looked in his eyes and then here and there. He did not speak. He did not know English. "Officer, he doesn't know English, Hindi or Kannada," I told him. The policeman smiled and said to me I also don't know Kannada. "Really?" I smiled and asked. "Yeah! I just got transferred here. I don't speak Kannada". He said calmly. "Oh! What do you speak then?" I tried to take ahead our conversation. "Telugu", He said. Lots of thoughts started running in my mind. Negative of course. The man had a smile on his face. A weird suspicious smile. I asked one last question and hoping the answer not to be what I am thinking. "Where are you from, officer?". "Telangana buddy".
I looked at Raman who was already looking at me and his eyes told me the real story, "We are fucked!!."
Just so everyone knows - "I'm Raman". Hi.
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