12.20 AM : We are just 12 Kms from Shivasamudram. Trips was driving. A Maruti Omni right in front, breaked while trying to overtake the car ahead of him. Trips applies the break and the car skids but hits the Omni van - result - a crashing accident. The radiator and engine had imploded! Luckily, no major injuries to anyone. The guy in front started arguing. We had a huge build up of crowd. Every passer by became an expert on driving and justice. After debating and fighting and talking for about an hour - we had to yield to the driver and pay him of 1000 bucks! Also, it helped in dispersing the crowd and think of what next. As always, the accident occurred in the middle of nowhere and Airtel or Hutch did not have connectivity there.
1.15 PM : We just drove the car back some distance. But it was fuming all kinds of vapors of weird smells. We suspected that it might be the coolant burning. We opened the bonnet and saw that the coolant pipe was broken and something like battery acid was leaking all over.
1.25 PM: We decided to walk to the nearest village and call somebody from insurance or Maruti emergency helplines. Some villagers told us that it was 1 Km away. But never believe a villager when he says something is just 1 Km - it just went on and on. Trips and I'd walked more than a Km. Pooja and Heku stayed back to look after the car remnants. After some distance, I decided to try my luck with asking for lift. The only gracious soul who took pity and offered help was a tractor guy. He also said that he could arrange for the car to be towed to the nearest town - Malavalli. We stopped at the first village. There were phone booths there. We told him that we would take help if needed. We made a few frantic phone calls to all Maruti helplines/emergency numbers. Only one Mr. Shankarappa picked the phone and he said he would start from Bangalore only at 7 PM - the time now was 2.30 PM.
2.30 PM : We hitched a ride in a posh car. 1 man, 2 women - gave us lift to sight the of the accident. They were drinking beer while! The irony - nothing happens to such people! We got back to the sight and decided that we would go back to the town of Malavalli to get the car towed till there atleast so that we are back in cell phone territory. So that we could talk to people and get some help. And people trying to help us could contact us.
3.00 PM: After hitching another ride from a bunch of guys this time to Malavalli - we found a garage. The foreman picked up some 'tools' which included a couple of spanners and a hammer. He said he would talk to some taxi guys and we could all go there and if couldn't make the car worthy of driving, he would tow it back to Malavalli and work on it. Our hopes were dwindling - and increasingly, the option of calling for help from Bangalore which was 100Km away seemed like the best option. We started in an ambassador car and on the way the car ran out of diesel. When things go wrong, the world conspires to screw you! After some huffing and puffing, we reached the sight. They connected the car and started the towing process.
4.30 PM : We reached Malavalli. Malavalli is a small town - there were restaurants/tea shops and a horrible main road. We parked ass at a school playground. It had the paintings of Nehru/Gandhi, painted with the tri-colour in places! We had a big argument with the foreman and the car towing guys. The argument went on and on - finally we gave in and gave the towing guy another 100 bucks other than the 200 we'd alreday given.
5,30 PM : We were still desperately trying to call all helplines of Maruti for towing service. Bangalore was 100Kms away. Finally, Prakash and Shankarappa said they would come to tow us back to Bangalore.
This duration, we were just observers of the small town life. Friendly and concerned people, smiling kids playing cricket and goli, smaller kids using the ground to cycle around. That was the general atmosphere on the ground. every now and then people came asked what happened and we would repeat the story over and over again. We took turns to explore the town and have chai/coffee. First, Trips and Heku went on a walk - then Pooja and I went around. We were just killing time waiting for the promised Mr. Shankarappa to come.
7.00 PM : I called Shankarappa again. He tells me he's started from Bangalore and already travelled 30Kms. So we estimated that he would reach by 8.30 PM. In the meantime, we had so many topics to talk about. We generally discussed the freedom vs development debate that I so much love nowadays. I also made some friends in the village - some kids, some middle age men. Time just crawled by ..
8.00 PM : I called up Shankarappa. This time he shouts at me saying don't keep calling every 2 minutes. He assured me that he's on his way! Whatever happened to the concept called Customer service.
We just lay around there. Took a walk to the medical store - Pooja wanted a lense case. We made conversation with more people - the general attitude of people was that of help and sincerity. This medical shop guy gave us bondas to eat and didn't charge for it! Something we forget living in the hustle-bustle of a city. Time still crawled .. Trips was beginning to sulk a bit!
10.00 PM : After a long wait, again I call up Shankarappa - he gives the heart attack. That they were in Ramanagaram - on a completely different highway towing somebody else's car!! We scream in vain and again he assures us that he WILL come. Pooja and I took a walk to the town and got some food. Again, the restaurant had closed down - we told them our situation and they opened the hotel for us and made fresh food! Some jeera rice and friend rice! We again thank the niceties of small town India.
In the meantime, some people from the office opposite the school offered some temporary accommodation on 'humanitarian' grounds. It was getting cold sitting out in the open in the school grounds/verandah.
11 PM : We woke up the watchman of the BESCOM office and asked him if his offer still holds. Graciously, he agreed and we pushed the car into the compound. He made a small arrangement for us by putting some tables and desks and made a temporary hard bed for us. Pooja and I slept in the room - Trips and Heku chose the car.
Finally, Mr. Shankarappa arrived at 2.30 AM, 15th August. They toed up the car's front wheels to the tow crane. We all decided to sit in the car itself. So thus began our final journey towards Bangalore. The weird spring action of the chain attachment between the truck and car made us swing like crazy. Our driver was not least bothered about potholes - he just anted to get the hell back to Bangalore. He said he'd one 30 service calls that day!
7.00 AM, 15th August : We are back home, back broken, neck sprained! But thank God! It could've been much worse.
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