It was the Guru Poornima weekend in Chicago. I was already feeling the pinch of not being able to attend any of the Guru Poornima events. To add to that, it was a long weekend and Navin was supposed to work on Saturday. But he got a call from office and had to work on Friday as well.
We had a car rental for the entire week, but we were there sitting at home. Frankly speaking we did not mind, but would have been happier if we went out instead of sitting at home for two continuous days.
Mehul and Minal were in SF; they are our friends from Chicago. We had planned to meet on one of the days when Navin would be free over the long weekend. Sunday being the only day Navin was available, we decided to meet on Sunday. Ananth and Hima joined us too and we planned for a trip to the Golden gate and Point Reyers.
The trip was really awesome. It was a big group and we had lots of fun. We talked, walked, did total bhangas (crazy stuff), clicked pictures, ate oysters, teased Hima (she is a great sport and fun to be with), drove through the winding roads, put our hands out of moving car to feel the high speed winds near point Reyers, made fun of Navin (he is a target most of the times; he is fun and funny too), Ananth was ready with smart comments as always. Mehul, Minal were ready with romantic poses for picture shooting which was so much fun too. We used to click picture of them including the person who was clicking pics of them. It is funny to see those pics! Will share if Mehul Minal don't mind.
In all this drama, we forgot that our car was short of gas. We were about 15-20 miles away from the city and returning from Point Reyes. The reserve gas alarm rang indicating that the car needed gas right away. We must have drove for 10 miles with the indicator ON. Navin was driving and he just had one thing on mind - to get to a gas station by Hook or Crook.
We were almost near a gas station and GPS indicated left turn. Navin pulled the car on the left lane and suddenly he saw a Gas Station along the road on the right hand side. Without thinking or rather without looking right or left, Navin pulled the car on the right lane towards the gas station. There was a car right behind in the right lane. Bang! Our car banged into the car. Luckily the collision was very small and the car driver moved away from our car at the right time.
But the next couple of hours were bad. More for Navin :P. The other car driver was a lady and she had just one expression written all over her as she got out of her car. She was FURIOUS. She started yelling F words and we all just kept quite.
When she was a little cool and able to think, she asked for the DL. Navin had a out of state license. Now what? Are you from SF? Yes Mam, Navin nods. Show me some proof that you are. Show me your rental car papers. Oops. Navin looked at me. Where is your bag? Err... I left it at home. The bag had the rental papers and all the other stuff in the world. Navin always complained that I never find anything I want in that bag. So, I thought I will leave it at home. But now... we needed the bag!
Ok... then show me your insurance. Aah... we never carried insurance papers or id anytime. Wait a sec; Navin said 'I have it on my cell'. This must have been first words Navin spoke after the lady started talking. WHAT? Says the lady? Insurance? Cell? What?
Navin pulls out his cell phone waving to her that the insurance # is on the cell phone. Who on earth has # stored on their cell phone? What if the cell phone is dead? Well, the cell phone was dead! The lady yelled louder. She needed some assurance that damage to her car would be covered. Luckily she did not call the cops. Else we would have been in locker for inquiries.
Navin was shaken for sure. Less from the collision but from from the lady's abusive language. And with no proof of car insurance or rental car we were on the back foot. 'Do you realize what you did?' she was saying all the time. We realize now for sure. At that time our minds stopped thinking.
I have a motorola charger suggested Minal. Thank God. We got the cell charged in the store at the gas station. Once we got the number, we called Gieco, filed a case and gave the case # to the lady.
It was a horrific experience on a fun day. We were planning to go to Minal Mehul's hotel place and then plan dinner or something. But after this break, we headed straight home. Did not even have the courtesy to ask Hima and Ananth about dinner plans. We were just shaken by the whole experience.
1 comment:
wow what an incident..
u r really lucky to get that charger.. no car papers, no insurance information, out of state license and on top of that it was the mistake of the driver himself..!
man.. no wonder navin was shocked.. and u r lucky that there were no cops.. actually I thought first thing to do after an accident is call 911 so the cops can document everything.. but anyhow
good it was a minor one and everyone is fine :)
btw.. u dont do bhangas.. you do bhanKAS.. ;-)
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