They say life is cruel, and it is. The month was a bad one for us financially, and this incident on Sunday evening only added
to our woes.
My school mate landed in Bangalore and we (me and wifey) were on our way to meet him. Around 8PM, on Sunday we were on the
Varthur main road (Airport road) in front of Bageecha restaurant taking a U-Turn. After carefully judging an auto which was quite far away, i proceeded into the U turn (rather a L turn) to turn into my friend's building entrance. What happened next is something which i assume i will never forget for a long time to come.
The auto which i had seen approaching was doing a really high speed, and the miserable brakes didnt help either. The guy came and smashed right into the left side of my car. For a moment, my heart stopped. Checked if wifey was alright, which she was. We were belted up, and so no issues that way. Stepped out of the car and inspected the damage. The passenger (a lady) from the auto was thrown out owing to the force of the impact. The auto driver came out limping and within minutes there was a massive crowd. The auto stand being somewhere nearby, soon
they had the entire road blocked, and about 50 auto guys and their gangs which pounced upon the scene.
Fearing that my car risked the chance of being robbed, i took out the key, and locked it. The front left side door as well as the fender above the front left wheel bore the brunt of the damage, not to forget the
wheelwell which was smashed. Normally, one would expect that the auto guy would apologize for his crazy speeds, and we settle the issue amicably. But that wasnt what happened.
Very soon there were gangsters and mean looking characters who poured in from everywhere and anywhere literally threatening me and my friends to pay up. I asked my friends to get wifey out of the scene into the safety of their apartment. I tried calling 100 to get the cops on the scene, but
IT WASNT EVEN GOING THROUGH !! Whats the use of having a hotline number when it doesnt get through !!
I insisted on having a cop on the scene and someone went and brought a traffic cop from the Kundanahalli junction. That didnt help either. He pretended ignorance of any language other than Kannada and was in no mood to help solve things. He was scared himself, and infact, threatened to have a case filed against me if i didnt get the car out of there !! But, Why me??!!
Interestingly, these gangs also brought upon false witnesses, who claimed the car was being driven by the lady and that too without a licence !! The cop also bought that story. I strongly refused, but who was going to listen to me? They had very conveniently packed off the passenger from the auto, sending her off in another auto. I am sure she didnt want to get
involved in this mess.
With people banging the car, the glass, trying to pry open the locked doors, verbal assaults against us, open threats (the cop was a mute spectator) i decided it was best to get the car out of the scene. I decided to reach a compromise. There was one big shot who seemed to be some sort of leader. I asked him if he spoke Telugu which he did. Finally, i had a common language to speak in. (
Note: I am not of Telugu origin, but learnt if from my friends during college). I told him we can
discuss things peacefully, but first ask all unconcerned people to leave the scene. He passed on some orders, and then said that we need to pay the auto guy 4000 bucks. I said, 2500, but later agreed upon 3000, following which they get the hell outta there, and repairing my car becomes my concern.
I stashed the money into the auto driver's pocket, asked him to get his leg examined, auto repaired, shook hands with him, and along with my friend drove the limping car away. The bent wheel well was making all sorts of noises, and i didnt know what would be the extent of the damage. Parked the car at home, covered it, took my bike and went over to my friend's place to pick up wifey.
Took the car to my dealer yesterday, who after inspection put the damage at Rs. 21,000 approximately including labor charges.
They would be replacing the front LH door, the LH fender, and also plastic parts included. Bajaj Allianz being the insurance company, i dont need to pay upfront, which is a relief. No third party claims involved, and that negates the need for a police complaint.
The effect of this episode on our lives has been quite significant. Wifey is still in a semi shocked state, my friend keeps cursing himself for having being the person whom we came to visit, and i have been having sleepless nights. Both me and wifey had to take leave yesterday to take the car to the garage and take care of the insurance claims. We do not know for sure as to how much money we would need to shell out, and to add to it all, we wanted to take leave today, as its our first wedding anniversary, but we couldnt as we were on leave yesterday. Bad timing, and an anniversary gift we'd rather not have had.
Some pics of the car while at the dealer following the accident.
P.S. : I am not going into the entire series of events, as i am trying not to thtink too much about it, and move on.
P.S. : Rahul (mclaren), arent you in town? Tried calling you on Sunday, but couldnt get through.