A Traffic Friday

A Friday afternoon seemed just another day; little did I know fate was in mood for humour.

Now I am not a big fan of government policies, activities and those officials. I have lived and experienced confrontation with the government employees; be it for passport, driving licence, NOC, rashan cards, pan, tax & car hijacking. Most departments mentioned takes weeks and months to get your work done. But..there is one department which operates on the Nazi blitz Krieg way. They stop, pick up the car, and they are off, not even bothered to look around if there is some one yelling, ' Hey its my car!! I'm coming!' . Having said that let me return to this Friday.

The previous day: Mom, ‘Buy vegetables and 2L milk from Reliance fresh tomorrow..and don’t forget potatoes. You can buy any vegetables you wish’.

Myself, ‘Yes yes ok.’

          Friday: I pressed the button with a capital G marked on it and tried recollecting how much money I had. Placed a hand over the pocket and remembered the Rs 1k I had withdrawn a day before. Hmm.. more than sufficient.

I got inside the bottle green car and turned the ignition. The fuel was dangling close to the E mark so I exited the building premises and turned towards the petrol pump, the other way. Handed a guy in a BP uniform a 500 bill and he filled in 7.92L of unleaded petrol. I drove past my home and reached Reliance Fresh Mart. I found an unmarked spot and parked the vehicle behind another car. The lone driver inside the front car looked on. Took me 15mins, give or take, and I exited with 3 heavy bags of groceries. I walked to the parked spot just to be welcomed and overwhelmed by an empty spot. Just then I had a mental image of how and what must have happened. A man sitting nearby said, ‘Yep, they took it to the station, probably pounded under the Borivali flyover’. I didn’t say a word and called a rick home. Dumped the grocery bags home and left for the bus stop.

          Catching the bus in a hurry only took me halfway and the bus turned the other way. Absent minded and pissed off, I walked the rest. A vacant towing van lay parked and I patted it.At the Borivali Traffic Police station, I was told, ‘Perhaps it’s probably at Kandivali Station’. So another bus ride later I reached the destination. The car simply lay on the side of the road, I took the key out but soon spotted a yellow block clamped to a tyre. Ehhh..

I paid the official Rs 300 for their trouble, Rs 100 for the offence + Rs200 towing charge. I wanted to throw the money in front of him but all I could do was take out the cash and drop it in front of the counter. He picked it up. Outside another guy used a key and freed the impounded vehicle. Driving back home I sang a song and a guy riding pillion outside, peeked inside.