Total Pageviews

Thursday 11 September 2014

Chapter 9 - Herby in Hyderabad ....and a Indigo joins in

So here we are.. Herby in Hyderabad , the city of the famous Hyderabad biriyani and lots more. Hyderabad is not a new city for me , spent a few years of schooling in my endless house hopping journeys. Our new home was being built and our temporary accommodation was dads office guest house which doubled up as the company's training centre . A training centre where fresh graduates come in and go through a training , induction process to formally get into the company main stream of activities.The new training centre being built was 90 kilometres away on the other side of the city and Herby had a real good run clocking up kilometres day in day out with dad at the wheel.

Soon age seem to have caught up with both dad and herby , at 12 years Herby's suspension wasn't any softer and passed on the jerks to dad's spinal cord which was equally old at 48 . And dad from the company he worked for was entitled for a chauffeur driver and car.Thus began the hunt for a newer car , a car which could be fuel efficient considering the distance covered and offer luxury at a value price. Well before you think luxury means Bms or audis or mercs , hang on .... the car we bought was a Tata Indigo , well for those who want to know about tata , Tata now owns Jaguar and Land rover and makes Trucks , Buses all sort of things. Well as far as the Indigo was concerned , an Australian equivalent would be a top end variant of the Nissan Tilda. From a performance perspective , the Indigo was truly outclassing our herby , had a 1.6 Turbo Diesel and of course manual transmission , leather seats and a audio with aux were already ready. I must admit that during the initial days , my attention was diverted to our newer car ignoring Herby. The Indigo was faster and going at 100 was a breeze , and the turbo was comedy by itself . The turbo would only kick in at a certain rev and when it did , I found myself in a situation trying to control a raging bull unable to get the right driving characteristic.

But the arrival of Indigo had a silver lining , now it meant that after 100000 km on the clock , a worn suspension , No frilled Herby's keys were finally handed over to me. Herby was now mine ! Truly mine. And I was simply overjoyed , ok maybe a corner of me wished for the new car but nevertheless getting a car is good enough. Herby now in my hands of course , but not without a few last moment customisations . I ensured Dad changed the ageing seat upholstery and put in a audio with Aux. The budget was stringent but this is the least i expected , considering i always loved my music and the seats should be a little worthy of ferrying a few girl friends around town , so u see see am in my college days.

Soon I wasn't too fussed about the Indigo being used by my dad and would stand by my Herby challenging him that Id beat him any day in a race knowing very well I would definitely lose. Though I did have a few motivational factors to think that I could , I had a small car with a petrol engine and dint really have to be too bothered about how i drive Herby , no matter what maintenance is low. while the Indigo was pretty new , the car is hug and cant move around in traffic as easy as mine.
So much for personal ego , to date the cars never raced , they were good in their respective places. But I did have a few antics on my belt with Herby , most notably doing a turn on 3 wheels at 70 kph and a sharp one at that. It happened when I  was at the wheel with my dad and a friend of his. I was in the right lane going at around 70 when dad was cross at me for missing an exit and the next option to turn back was to cross a bridge do a U turn and come back. My local knowledge of the suburb by now meant that I knew the roads well and that I dint have to cross the bridge and have one last option to go under the bridge and flip around through a series of inner roads. The only trouble is I am on the right lane doing 70 and that turn was smack left in front of me , in a split second I swerved the steering cutting across 3 lanes moving the car in 3 wheels and then doing a hard left and a hard right and to get the car back on 4 wheels slowing down slamming on my brakes. To this day dads friend will never forget this ride and he calls it his near death experience.

To me it was a near youth fun experience , I dint get away easy and was banned from driving until I showed signs of not showing road rage which meant a good month of sitting in the passenger seat rather than the driver seat. Nothing goes in vain , because i learnt driving watching dad drive and driving is a learning process right from darting in darting out , changing gears at the right time and knowing where your car will fit into.

Saturday 4 February 2012

Chapter 8 - A new journey begins with a loss …..


August 2005 .The day when we had to pack up and leave behind the city I call home. Mumbai , the place where I grew up and made my actual long lasting friends. There is something about that city I can never explain and alas! The time had come to depart for Hyderabad.

Dad was already transferred to Hyderabad and was still hanging in Mumbai thanks to horrible attempts in finishing my high school. Mumbai was at its usual best , complete rains and the day we were to depart the sun had come out . The packer guy said that the truck could finally head out of city to Hyderabad. A very very emotional moment and we started Herby moving out of the colony for one last time , eyes filled with tears just gazed at the roads which I have been travelling back and forth ,for these would soon be memories. Crossing the Vashi sea link and hitting the shores of Mainland India , we drove along until we reached the beginning of the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Dad handed over Herby to me and under the watchful eyes of Dad began my drive. Of course he was looking at the speedo , so that I don’t exceed 80kmph.

40 kilometres into the expressway approaching the ghats , I noticed my dad sleeping and I moved onto the right lane . Just entering the Bhatan tunnel with a Volvo on my left , I was whizzing away overtaking the bus , when my dad woke up and yelled Shyam! Cut down , Whoops in my excitement to overtake the bus and a smooth road , I dint notice the speedometer , it read 110kmph.

Settled down for a cruising 100 and soon we reached Pune by evening , with a little juggle through the city , we were out on the other end on our way to next major town called Sholapur. 2 hrs into the drive and we took a halt a roadside dhabha , which I would remember for quite some years to come for a specific reason. Why ???? Hang on folks its coming soon …


After the brief halt , we were back on the road and Dad took over , dusk fell and along with it came rain. That drive was tough , with rain tearing through the evening , visibility was low and made it impossible for us to drive , but dad moved on . Suddenly from now where we were over taken by the shiny flashing light car . It was a Contessa( a yesteryear luxury car) of a district collector . The yellow beacon light was so bright that we could see it for miles .Dad stepped on the accelerator and regardless of what speed we were in tailed the beacon car for as long as he could until a time came where we could catch up no more. The car had more power and obviously had the advantage of the beacon at a few places. I think it was god’s way of saying all right buck up your are mere civilians .

Night fell and we stopped at a place called Mohol , seemed like a okayish place for a night sleep. We retired to sleep and next morning in the first instant of dawn we began, I took over wheel again and we just came out of the Hotel and barely a 100 metres , I realised my purse missing. We went back to the hotel and searched everywhere , to no avail .

Its when it struck me that I had left behind my purse accidently on the dhabha near Pune . Well they say you should get blessing/darshan from elderly people or god when a new day begins, I sure got it from my dad. Not only did I lose my purse , along with it went my driving license and 2500 bucks in cash and It turns out that Dad who had given me that money was the only cash we had. Uh oh and oh for 10 minutes I was at the receiving end of my fatherly blessings , and all I could do is keep my mouth shut and probably keep it under my seat .

Soon things cooled and then Dad blurted out , you bugger! that was the only cash which had to be used for fueling Herby. Which village petrol pump do you think is going to have credit card facility. I still threw a sulky face .Well that mean I cant drive anymore and dad took over , all the fiasco delayed us a good 45 minutes and Dad was in furious mood showed it at the wheel , I think we were hitting 100 constantly until a place where a dog ran across and too late ! We could brake in time , and thud !

50 metres further we stopped the car , It dint seem like the day was going too well for us , a lost license and now a dog hit . To our surprise we saw the dog walking away on the other side , don’t ask us how it escaped . Well a good look at the front showed us the right bumper taking the impact with the indicator lamps also broken. Not too bad , but yes that’s where the thud came from.

Started again and soon dad began to worry about one hour down the road , asked him why and he said , we are low on fuel. 6 am in the morning and the petrol pumps weren’t open either. The needle was just a shade above the E mark , E  means empty , damn ….

A few kilometres as we cut down our speed to increase the mileage , we noticed a bunk guy just opening the petrol station . We went to him and said you accept cards , he gave us one weird look , He said no card and with the little money dad had we filled Herby .
15 litres and all dad was left now was with 100 rs in hand.

We calculated 15 litres should take us thru 300 kilometres and hopefully we should be able to find one more Petrol station which of course now has to accept credit cards. Back on the road and we drove along letting kilometres run away , after 4 hours we noticed fuel indicator close to E again . Dad now was getting worried , with all his calculations we had covered 290 odd kilometres . Did we underestimate the mileage , he was asking me ?

I had no answer and couldn’t still reeling under my morning shock. 5 minutes later a big petrol station and credit cards and dhaba and eateries. Phewww We stopped Herby tanked up full and after a sip of coffee started again to reach Hyderabad at 10 AM.

Herby now in a brand new city in the Southern State of Andhra Pradesh 750 kilometres from Mumbai .

Wednesday 25 January 2012

Chapter 7 - Treasure Hunt and a Hi to Padmini


Days were rolling by in Mumbai with work ,college. Thanks to Mumbai’s transportation , Herby was seldom used except for some short hops here and there. There was this time when Herby would max cover a distance of 150 odd kilometres over 2 months. And even those came out of trips to relatives place or the temple.

Boring days were nearing when one Sunday morning I caught an ad in the paper . Maruti Suzuki treasure hunt.It read “ Inviting all maruti owners to take part in this treasure hunt in Mumbai’ The hunt began at 8 Am and I saw the clock , It read 8 30 .


I screamed across to dad in the other room , pops treasure hunt and mum was just getting ready to start Sunday cooking . 30 minutes later I had succeeded in getting the three of us out onto herby filled with sandwiches and water bottles to go on the treasure hunt. The treasure hunt aim is to finish some 13 odd clues or checkpoints and involved some lucky draws for the fastest completion.We registered ourselves and I found my dad signing some rules stating maruti not responsible for any accident which may occur etc and that speed limit will be checked between 2 checkpoints. Max permissible speed is 60kmph.I was miffed hearing that , 60kmph ,, nonsense Mumbai roads especially on eastern express highway and western express highway we could touch 80kmph.


Nevertheless we headed off on our treasure hunt , a lovely Sunday morning and sun out , mum making sandwiches in the back seat and me trying to guess the treasure hunts. Couple of them very pretty easy but they were spanned so across Mumbai that it involved us going from one end to the other . It was so much fun as at every checkpoint we were given goodies like car vouchers teddy bears and water cool drinks . Herby for the first time had a number sticker ! I was so proud because till then I have only seen race cars with numbers on the side. We had caps and maps and boy was it one heck of an adventure. We could finish most of the checkpoints except one which talked about a go karting circuit. We never have been to a go karting circuit in Mumbai , and I wasn’t able to recollect the name where It was located. We stopped for fuel when asked the fuel guy , if he knows any go karting circuit . He directed us to some place on the western suburb. Reaching there we dint find nay checkpoint and that’s one I got the name . I shouted in exclamation HAKONE! in eastern suburb. And thus begin our rather fiery drive from one end of Mumbai to the other .Having reached there we realised that we were running short of time . The race finishes by 4Pm. And we were there at 3 15 PM . The last checkpoint was the Mumbai CST station, a prominent heritage site. From where we were, that was a good 20 kilometres and has to reach it in 40 minutes.


We pondered a little but if we should go home as we have to cross home and reach CST. We dint give up and raced away , with 2 minutes to spare we reached CST and we were scouting for the checkpoint , the last one for us to complete the race. I was scanning around near the station and my dad had almost pulled over to the left side of the road and Herby was just about rolling , when I shouted spotting the checkpoint on the other side of the road . Dad turned to look at where I spotted and the next instant , crash and bang! The little kid screaming away and dad too momentarily lost in it , with Herby rolling and we smashed into a Fiat or better known as Premier Padmini.


Well a little scene with people coming around us and dad coming out to see the damage , well the speed in which we were caused no damage to the Fiat , a rock solid car made out of solid metal from the 1970. Herby on the other hand had some damage , my dad did a quick check and noticed that the radiator took a little beating and touching the fan . He quickly shut the bonnet and went back to the seat ,and we looked in the direction of the checkpoint , and disaster , They were just packing up in a bike and going off .

My dad not wanting to give up as we had come so far , did a quick turn and raced towards them already moving on their bikes. Herby with his fan was making weird noises taka taka taka whirr whirrrr whirrrrrrr with the engine running and the front grill shaking as it lost it bolts and the bonnet was only holding it . I think this is where we broke the 60 rule and went ahead catching up to the guys in the bike. We got our last checkpoint stamped and goodie bag, and proceeded home. Herby was making the whirr noises and mum asked to cut the speed down. 40 minutes later home sweet home. Herby went to the mechanic the next day and got himself treated and back with the radiator and fan fixed,

To this day me and dad have a hearty laugh on how herby by just touching Padmini, took such an impact, we keep saying even today, we just said Hi to a Padmini and we got a trashed radiator.



Chapter 6 - Winding roads and freaked out hands


After months of squabbling with my dad that we have not been on any long road trip . We decided to take Herby out to Pune and Mahableshwar meeting relatives in Pune.
Dad and Son taking inspiration of being dressed holiday style , went to the nearby clothes store and bought ourselves nice baggy half pants , kind of a trekking half shorts.
Cometh the day and I was all mad, doing rain checks and helping out dad with herby .Soon we were off in Herby, clad in our shorts with mum doing the eateries duty in the backseat and occasional back street driving too. She would go often noticing the speedometer ‘Shankar – reduce speed.
First time on the Mumbai Pune expressway and one hell of a road it is . Perhaps one of the best roads in India when we travelled, 6 lane on both sides and long and long. And that was the first time I realised what Herby could do. Little into the Pune highway post lunch, when my mum dozed off, I was chatting away noticing the Volvo buses go past us and the scenes around. I took some time off to notice the speedometer after a brief stop at a toll gate .My dad shifted gears swiftly and I was glaring at the speedometer , For some god damn reason I had the movie Speed running in my head, especially the dialogue go below 50 the bus blows ! And there was a scene where the bus jumps of a bridge at 50 miles roughly I guess around 90kms. I wondered if Herby can be in such situation and go fast. My eyes from a little peck was suddenly locked onto the Speedo , 70 , the needle gradually moving beyond the half way Speedo to 80kmph and then inching towards 90kmph . I noticed that 2 more pegs and we will be in the three figure mark. Can herby do it?
High end cars , all zipping past and suddenly we were zipping too , 91 , 92 , 93 , 95 and in front of us are the cars much more faster , comfortable . and then the next moment the glee on my face , an old car on the right lane overtaking a brand new car and boy 100KMPH , My face light up and like a young kid way , went with a sense of achievement , haa I raced you ! The old car is still stuff and boy what a feeling!!!!
The sun was beating down on us and in front me and dad had no protection thanks to the half pants, we eventually put towels on our laps to prevent getting roasted. 3 hours later we were up on the winding roads on the hill station. While going up there was a road which said , Suicide point , I coaxed my dad into driving there and soon we were off on this narrow road twisty and turning . Reaching there was a piece of cake but on the way back , there was something in store and my dad apparently has vertigo , some kind off fear of heights of head spinning thing . The reason , well while going there he was facing the mountain side and hence did not have an idea of depth , however while going back the drivers side faces the valley below and in good depth too , he freaked out , I could sense his palms sweating. And horrible me , to me all this is adventure , here my dad is struggling to be in senses and drive and I am shouting , yayy wat a deep valley and depth , super scene .
My mum screamed , Shyam – will you shut up . I promptly did and after few minutes we were back on the main road. My dad stopped and was panting away drinking water. Of course that was the last of Herby on off beaten tracks.

Friday 20 January 2012

Chapter 5- illegally out of the colony into the city


By now , my driving was a lot more better and daily rounds in colony have enabled me to perfect my driving . The result was that I could now go in all 4 gears , turn the steering and do all this listening to music on my Mp3 player. Of course no more gate banging.

The itchy hands were now quite bored or driving around the colony to be honest and soon there was a period of time when I preferred to sit back in the passenger seat and enjoy the road, until one fine day my aunt was coming to Mumbai and by an early morning train. She was asking me direction in the taxi to reach our home.

Ummmm.. ummmmmm my brain went whizzing . Chalukya express arrival 7 30 Am at Dadar . Speaking on the phone , with herby in front of me .My brain was now doing its weird thoughts of the road etc and in the momentary thinking , probably I could feel herby too standing there and talking to me , as if to say ‘Hey Shyam , morning no traffic psst psst , listen 4th gear more than 40km. And in the next second I told my aunt , aunty no taxi , I will come and pick u up. She said oh ok.

The following night , sleep wasn’t seen anywhere near me , the feeling of going out against all odds, dad in Hyderabad, mum in Rajkot and it was only me and herby. I used to get up every 2 hours and check my watch , is it 6.30 , is it 6 30 . At last 6.30 arrived and for the first time ever like a warrior getting out into the battle field to face the opponents , I crossed the main gate of our colony to merge onto the main road . 2 minutes later I was on the Eastern Express Highway towards the City , 4 lane , no traffic .

Need for speed music was back in head , this time in full swing , moving along flyovers and passing trucks and taxis and going at 80kmph , I was in full glee with my lips not closing , yeehawww , I am on my way to Dadar . Of course there were a lot of factors influencing my decision to go out. Primarily because the roads are very wide and not narrow , and no signals to stop as we go above in flyovers and morning traffic is less.

Soon I was on my way back picking up my aunt , a little jittery as by now the traffic on the road had increased manifold and I dare not tell my aunt that this is first time I am driving on the main roads. 30 minutes later we were home and Herby was parked back.

Its like the movies , when I gave a little pat with my hand on the bonnet and said thank you. I did it . And moved away, few days later when my dad heard this , instead of reacting , it ended up being positive with me now officially given permission no head out of colony under adult supervision, hehe ! Well actually dad in the passenger seat.

Well which now means that all the short hop journeys to the market and nearby friendsplace , I get to drive and my fathers keep saying to our relatives , ahh I now sit back , Shyam is the driver . I proudly smile and since I am more involved in Herby , I do my fair bit of cleaning Herby and ensuring that the windscreen is devoid of dust .All for another shot at driving. 

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Chapter 4 - Herby goes to workshop and Gate crashes


By now it was a known fact that I was driving the car in the colony and doing my scratches and breakings. My dad did not seem to mind these little mishaps, much to my irritation . He is very fond of Herby , but this non angry reaction irked me.

Few days later I got my answer , the reason he was not bothered about the little dents and breakage was due to the fact that Herby was going for a full makeover and away for 2 weeks to the workshop. The workshop was not very far off just a little away from the house towards the main road. Every day on my way out to the main road I would look for Herby and how he is . The first few days he was stripped of all lighting and fitments and lying with wires dangling on the side of the road parked in slush. I couldn’t do much as there was no parking space. Soon after a week, he was stripped of his doors, the bonnet and the hatch and his paint scrubbed out .I wondered what it is to be a car being like that.

Things got even worse after a few days, when he was now not on his own feet, and was supported by stone blocks. And finally one fine day after 2 weeks of being in the workshop comes out a Milk white painted Herby, completely polished and shiny black bumpers, all dents taken out, new headlamps, tail lamps ,new indicators. Parked in his new parking spot right in front of my balcony , ahh for a few days I forgot the girls in my colony to bird watch , I would just admire Herby with his shiny shiny looks.

Now of course the human mind doesn’t keep quiet and I was yet again tempted to take him out. Wow , click goes the key on the door and when I open it , could smell the fresh smell of polish , the smell of fresh oil and new rubber mats . Seat covers. Next with great excitement I turn the ignition and vroom this silent engine wake up . Not the rattling engine I knew. I kept the engine running , opened the bonnet trying to see what is new.

As if I am a great mechanic , I peeked into the bonnet to see everything now fresh smelling , few shiny parts which I assume are new. And an engine so silent . So much was my excitement , you could probably have transformers move opening music playing in the background with this boy awestruck at a machine. Back in the drivers seat and this time the fast paced Need for speed music comes into mind .Just like the game , a new car means more power , more power means fast and fast means covering my colony in less time.

Haha you can imagine the scene , teenage kid , a car revamped , my colony road is my race track and I am the only one ready to trash the lap record and NFS music in my head. I took the car out racing through my colony and as I was driving , I heard my name being called out , it was one of our colony uncles. I said hi and the next moment in front of me is our colony gate closed and bolted down to the road and the speed breaker just in front of it . What happens next till date I cannot seem to fathom to this day.

Front of me is a 2 ton metal gate bolted down freshly painted in red and black , the momentary Hi to my uncles resulted in me losing my concentration on the road and before I could realise to stop , the car went over the Speed breaker , crash bang and ding ding ding ding the metal gate is thrown open vibrating and rattling and the car stops.

That day I think is my first experience of the heart missing a beat . Herby just out of the workshop , my dad himself has not driven it , the shiny metal gate crashed into by this little 900 Kg car. I could already hear and feel my dad screaming and possibly hitting me . The society people complaining and the broken gate.

I got out of the car shuddering and panicking to first check on the damage to herby. Nothing , all I see is a car whose front wheel is on the speed breaker stopped with a tilted angle ,the gate wide open . Could not believe my eyes, how is this possible ? I hit a 2 ton gate with such force it actually opened and here is a car which doesn’t seem to have even a scratch . To be honest I expected the front end to be gone with the bonnet crushed in and the headlamps knocked out. Throwing my ego aside I checked and checked and went round and round herby trying to see some damage. Alas there was none . To this date I am dumbstruck as to how there is no damage.

After a good 30 minutes of doing round round, I gave up and went back to the driver seat to turn the ignition , ok I must admit no need for speed music . I could only imagine whacking of the belt and me in one corner of my sofa with face red horribly scolded and given a trashing of my life. Herby roared to life and I think I heard my brain speak and ask , why are you fooling me ? Arent you hurt and if yes where are you hurt ?.No answer , of course what was I expecting ? Herby to speak in English … obviously not.

I parked Herby and next went to investigate the gate. Seemed all fine and I had more confidence that the 2 ton gate just opened and nothing else. And then on the right gate , was the bolt which was to the ground completely bent in right angle. And of course the bolt doing its fair bit digging into the road. I thought I could get away , but unfortunately the uncle had seen it all and also noticed the bolt gone.

He came upto me and said ..you…. that bolt needs to be replaced !!! With a ferocious tone . We will send the notice to your father he bellowed. Gone ! I felt my first belt trashing on my back already. I ran home and called him up and when I narrated the events , he too was steaming and yet amazed that no damage to Herby. He did not believe it either . Later he came in the evening did the exact round round round of Herby and I was grinning , hehe ,he to couldn’t find any damage and was equally amazed . And clarified with me stating “ So you drove the car through that metal gate which was closed and nothing has happened’? . I shamefully trying to hide my laugh said errr YES.

All is well ends well , the bolt was damaged at 600 rupees , pretty small considering what could have been more if Herby was Damaged. Deal with my dad that this incident will not be told to Mum with great importance and that I will continue driving.

Chapter 3 -Juggling the turning and breaking the lighting.


After my first 4th gear shot with Herby , it was soon time to get it back to base. Of course this again is a different challenge. I have to know to park Herby in its exact location to avoid dads suspicion. Boy was it quite a task , well for starters yes I do know how to drive but still haven’t got the judgemental capabilities of its size , especially when the parking lot is narrow. Well All I had to do was drive it in straight to the end.

I did get away for a couple of day with my antics of driving around and parking it correctly. There was one broken flower pot which was my park mark , hehehhe.
I would leave it when I get out and ensure that I park it right there. Of course it does disappear some times , but yea was lucky enough to get away with dad not noticing the difference in location, ahh well just a few inches here and there.

And then came the day , where desire dragged the dum dum for trouble. Desperately wanting to drive , I took herby out and then when I wanted to come back 2 cars parked .Uh oh … was my reaction , and since I was not confident about the judgement to pass through the 2 cars . I decided to go roundabout the other side and come , which meant that I will be coming in the opposite direction and utterly opposite to the usual way Herby would be parked.

Well having said that , I drove herby through the opposite side and reached the parking , of course not to get it back in normal direction , I had to do some juggling with the steering . I think that day if I had a 100 aircons running I would still be sweating . Forward Backward , forward backward ! forward backward , and then since my judgement was bad looking back. I would stop get out of the car see the space behind , and repeat the same. I probably looked like the biggest clut reversing a car , and then with my patience running out I did the one last turn to put it in the right direction when I heard a screeeeeeeeecchhh and the sound of crunch . Disaster , the last turn in a hurry ended up me driving herby too close to the wall on the left breaking the side indicator and making a nice straight line ripping the white paint on the right side.

Well , horrified at the scratch and the broken pieces of the indicator , I rushed back home to bring a wet cloth and here I go scrubbing scrubbing to make the line not visible . I rummaged through the shoe rack to remove the polish dad uses to polish the dashboard. I said to myself, its car polish , it should work inside and outside and took it and polished that area hoping the line would go, well after some nonsensical attempts , I was satisfied that the line is not so distinct.

In all the hungama , I totally missed the fact that the broken indicator lamp was on the ground. Next morning my dad went near the car and called me over , I went trying to put up a decent smiling face , and he said ‘ So you have been driving around I notice ….. I replied er no appa just starting , stopping and generally. He retorted back , you don’t have to say anything , see those bits of indicator lamp on the floor and smiled , I know you have been driving around , the watchman’s been telling your driving in afternoons and fast on the turns. I put up a straight face and wished he saw his watch and released that he is getting late for office. Thankfully he did and moved to catch his 9.00 AM local train.