Dude! Where's my car?

Stealing the title from a movie couldn't be more justified than it is now. I finally know what it feels like when your companion on the road goes missing. In my case, I just knew it could not be that someone had stolen my car. That is just not possible and yet I could only gawk at the place where I had parked it. The road was right there. But not my car! A 1993, Maruti 800, which was last washed when it rained.

You know, that whole new feeling people talk about. No, you wouldn't. Not till you feel it. Then for some reason it struck me, that I had felt like this a million other times when I assumed that someone would take off with my car when I am not around. But that was fear and this was like "O my God! It finally did happen!" kind of a feeling. I think you might know the difference.

I always never got the fuel tank full for fear that if my car got impounded I would have wasted a fortune on refueling and then not being able to drive the thing. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. So while my human companions thought that I was severely worried about my missing car, I was silently thanking God that I had not refueled.

As if my missing car was the better half of my problems. No! The problem is never the missing car. It's always what's inside the car that's important. Arms full of shopping. To lose all that would be hard to deal with. Then there are other "procedural problems" that arise due to the lack of certain essentials. I assume that in a city like Ludhiana you almost always end up facing procedural problems.

Anyway, a couple of phone calls later I established, that I had greater problems. When my vehicle gets stolen, I can blame someone for it. But if my car has been towed, I cannot escape the blame. Absolutely, no matter what I feel about how I parked, I am to blame.

I found out where I could get my car from and went straight there and it seemed like the traffic police weren't really awkward while dealing with other lady drivers. When I walked out of station, I saw a whole line of pretty women, all dressed to the hilt, trying to haggle their cars out. Suddenly, I did not feel that bad anymore.

I did get my car back the next day, thanks to my dad. The worst thing about getting your dad involved in this kind of thing is the yelling.  But that's not the point. The point is that it does not matter where you park, you could get towed. It's just better of you use paid parking, at least if something happens you can blame the parking guy.

Anyway, as I drove my car out into freedom I saw the cops tow in an auto rickshaw. Behind the auto rickshaw was written "Gaadi ke maalik Nirmal Babaji hai". And I thought to myself, "Let's see Nirmal Baba pay the challan for that auto rickshaw!"