I am a cautious driver. My first experience with road rage, accident, police, the aftermath all happened today. It was a learning experience. My car was smashed from the back at a red light by a chartered bus. The lifeline of working people in Delhi. It was the morning time. Was lucky i was driving a SUV, and that save me and my friends. But what hurt me was the aftermath. The apathy, of the people in the bus, they wanted to reach their work place in time, hence were taking side of the bus driver. The famous statement "जान बच गयी शुरुर करो | तीन चार हज़ार ले लो | हम साब को बक्श दो | पोलिसे केस करने से कुछ नहीं मिलेगा | " etc etc .. The bus crew said , डेल्ही में ड्रिवे करते हो ऐस्सा तो होता रहेता है | पैसे लो और जाने दो | I had never been in such a situation before. so i called the police. The PCR cam about 30 minutes later. Then took their notes, and said the local police will come and take care off. I waited for another hour, then the local SI came. The first thing he said, was do a mutual understanding, if not i will impound both the vehicles and take them to police station. Then you can get them freed from the court. I asked him how long is the procedure, he said today is Saturday. On Monday the court may hear it or not, so when ever it happens after that i can get my car freed. He further said, then some other police/court department would come and take photographs for the case. Then may be if i am lucky i may get my car freed in a weeks time. He said if you go by the book this is the procedure. Else do an settlement with the bus people. By this time it was 3 hours from the time of the accident. And now the police man was saying i have to attend to 3 more calls, decide fast to me. Meanwhile the bus people were like, do anything , we do this daily. File a case and my bus will be on road by Monday morning while your car will take a week or more.
Under pressure for time and also thinking of the time i would end up running around the police stations and courts, i finally said, i do not want to file a case. Finally the bus driver went without any punishment. I spent 4 and a half hours on the road, and then took my SUV to the service center. There i spent another couple of hours on the paper work learnt that the total estimate was around 70,000 rupees. And that i would have to shell out about 35% of it from my pocket and that it would take around 10 days to get my car back.
I spent the whole Saturday, but a whole lot wiser man. Here in the evening, i stood shaken, some body pains but all the more wiser. But the moot question that came to me was , " i was no different that the others". I too took the easier way out. Who to blame? Myself? The system?
What does a common man do?
