Driving Right?

And then I landed in France, rented a car and drove on the "wrong" side of the road and it was fun!!

See!! This is what happens when you stop blogging for months together and then when you attempt to write a post, you wont even last for 140 characters. (those using twitter will understand better. for others, click here)

Now that you have a general idea what this blog is going to be about, let me take you back on how it all happened.

So I am in the middle of February this year, making elaborate plans for my birthday, which involves expecting gifts from my family and then taking them out for dinner (depending on the gifts i get...). There comes a news from my office that I may have to go to Italy for a meeting at FIAT, Turin. I was already under tremendous stress planning my birthday, and now I had to chalk out an itinerary for my upcoming trip to Italy too. After much speculation, I succeeded in making the itinerary, which looked something like this, "Fly to Turin, Italy on 28th Feb - Spend 4 days - Fly back to Delhi".

When everything is set, life has a strange way of leaving you puzzled. My French colleague who was supposed to meet me in Turin, Italy met with an accident instead. And in the process, broke his arm and came up with a brilliant plan. The plan involved making my itinerary go haywire and making me go on a driving frenzy for a week. But I was not complaining as I was getting to drive in Europe for the first time.

Didn't I speak about the connection between life and puzzles earlier? So there, again! Now I had to cram in the process of making an international driving license too. Dealing with Indian Government Authorities is a cakewalk as long as you are able to pull a few strings. Pull a few string and shell out a few bucks, I did. And I got an International Driving Permit made in 15 minutes flat.

And then I landed in Strasbourg, France where my heavily bandaged friend came to receive me and handed me the car keys. I felt like a Bollywood hero who came back after successfully completing his studies abroad and his dad came to receive him with a swanky new gift. By the way, no offence meant to my friend, he isn't as old as my dad.

Driving on the right side of the road was not much of a task as it is something that traffic in Noida often forces you to do and the upside was - no incoming traffic. But the flip-side were the laws which had to be followed. It is such a hard thing to do for us Indians, isn't it? Oh yes and honking was a big No-No. We Indians think that the Horn being right in front of our eyes is reason enough to press it even when we encounter a speed-breaker.

Well, a few initially hiccups later I was a pro and the 600-odd KM drive from Strasbourg to Turin via the beautiful landscapes of Switzerland was a dream. Here I definitely felt like a hero from Yash Raj films but what I was sorely missing was my Heroine, my wife.

All the fun and the beautiful vistas aside, the biggest take-back for me has been the civic sense shown by the people back in Europe. The dedication with which they follow the rules, come-what-may, is commendable. Correcting a society starts from correcting yourself, and since my return I have pledged to do my bit and not break any traffic rule as long as possible. (considering my trysts with Delhi Police, I shouldn't be breaking any rules anyway).  

Lost and Found

The terms Find, Search, Look-For etc are primarily associated with search engines these days, google to be more specific. But Google isnt the place to look for stuff you lose. Wouldnt it be cool to have a search engine where you can look for the stuff you misplaced?

My wife loved the new entrant in her life so much that at times I felt jealous. Months passed, her love affair continued and bond between the two strengthened. Meanwhile, after many failed attempts of winning back my wife I had conceded my position to the new member. But alas, destiny had other plans. On a fateful wintery day of November, something terrible happened that left a deep void in her life. She was running errands and "it" dropped off from her jacket pocket without her knowing. Yes "her precious", the snazzy mobile which she bought a couple of months ago, was gone forever. It was a sad end to our love triangle. 

The next stop for us was Gumshuda Talaash Kendra, Nayi Kotwali, Daryaganj. Which reminded me of the Doordarshan notice in which a female, who herself looking lost, gave the description of the people in such a way that no one would want to look for them. (Kad - 5 foot 6 inch, Chehra - Gol, Rang - Saanwla etc etc). Everytime the description was the same, as if the guy got lost over and over again or was never found. Hang on, we had lost a "thing" and not a "person".

So a little searching on the web told us that the third best chance of getting back the lost mobile is  to lodge an FIR at the police station. Of course, the second best would be when the person who finds it calls you back (yes, it is more probable than cops finding it) and the best chance of getting back the lost mobile would be not losing it at all. My wife being the eternal optimist decided to go to the cops. Any sane individual would term this act as blatantly stupid but it's always worth giving a shot. The conversation went this way:

My wife: I lost my mobile phone yesterday. How do I get it back?

Cop: naya phone lelo!! (With an expression that had "case solved" written all over it). 

A little more of prodding and pushing resulted in the cops relenting and letting us know there is something called "noida cyber crime cell". A visit to this "office" left us pleasantly shocked (!) as it was an un-police station. There was a young-ish cop with a laptop, solving cases online. He was genuinely interested in solving our case and he asked all the details, the most important of which was the IMEI number. Armed with an FIR copy we left that place, feeling a little hopeful even when we knew that the probability of find a lost mobile phone is like finding a gumshuda Chinese guy!!! (for those who didnt get it, all chinese look the same - no offence meant to my oriental friends).

 

Lot of days passed without any news from the so called cyber crime cell. But we kept tabs on the status by frequent calls to the cops. My wife's distraught mood was as if someone had gone through a terrible break-up. She refused to use or like any other phone which was not "Samsung Galaxy S Plus". And then one fine sunday afternoon, i received a call from the cop, he said nonchalantly "aapka phone gum hua tha na, mil gaya hai aake le jao". My happiness knew no bounds. When I broke the news to my wife, she thought I was kidding. A frenzied jumping session, a quick dash to the market to get a box of Ferrero Rochers, and a mad drive to the cyber crime cell later we had in our hands our mobile phone in perfect working condition. To our surprise the cops didnt "ask" (or demand) for anything and refused to accept chocolates too. Hats off to those guys!!

 

So that my friends was how we lost and found our mobile. There have been a few other losts and founds too since the last time i blogged, the list goes like this:

 

-  I lost myself in mundane life and found the will to blog again

-  I lost my bachelorhood and found married life. (which is a bliss)

-  I lost all hatred and found respect for Noida cops (at least the cyber crime ones)

-  And finally, I didnt lose anything but I found my best friend in my wife :)