It’s a common sight these days to see cops going with vigor against drunken driving in big and small cities, Imagine a couple of decades back this was nonexistent in India , you only got charged by the cops if you could manage to mow down at least a couple of people sleeping on the pavements and got caught in the process . Among the Page three crowd and film stars it became a fashion to mow down people on the pavements with their big SUVs . The rich and the famous even then got away blaming it on their drivers, Well the scenarios changed and with technology advancing breath analyzers have come to determine as to how much alcohol you have taken above the permissible limits and can cite the exact amount of alcohol in your blood.
Well recently one night a friend and myself had a couple of beers and we were heading back home after dinner, when the cops flagged us down for the check. But thankfully it was only a couple of beers and it was fine with the machine and the cops let us go. It was the first time we ever got checked and my friend who was driving was a relieved man. The Cops were also relieved a little I guess by their expressions as they thought my friend who was driving a Toyota fortuner was a big shot and might pull some strings with their superiors, the rest of the people getting checked there were either students in mobikes or auto drivers. Now this incident has made a star out of the lone teetotaler guy in our gang . He is now most sought after to drive us home after drinks and everybody now makes sure that he is kept in good humor always. The menu and other stuff are let to be decided by him and he is thanked profusely while he drops us all home. He is now looked up with respect and fear the same way we used to avoid annoying the school bully when we were in school.
Now what if you are charged with drunken driving even if you had never had any? what if there’s some sort of vague evidence that pointed out to you..? Or worse is if you are a teetotaler and you are charged for it ??
Well this incident happened more than 12 years ago in December 99, I was a newly married then with stars in my eyes. Well sometimes i get to see the stars even now after 12 years but for a different reason. They say marriages are made in heaven , well mine was made in Mangalore amidst our relatives and friends , not that I am complaining .
After the reception and other functions got over , One of my uncle invited me for lunch at his house in a remote village near Uppinagadi or Ubar as it is called in the local lingo there. It has nothing to do with a Bar though.
So after two days after my marriage we newlyweds made plans to visit him for lunch and another aunts house for dinner who was staying nearby.
On the said day we reached his place by car at around 11 Am driving down from my wifes native place which was quite far. Now at that time my Uncle did not have a refrigerator not that it would have mattered as there was never any continuous power in villages either then or now. But very thoughtfully he had made an arrangement to get us chilled beer at lunch time for us . Now in these villages Jeeps used to ferry people and stuff to nearby towns and these jeeps would make several trips to the nearby towns in a single day. So my Uncle had instructed a jeep driver to bring few bottles of chilled beer at around 12.30 pm. He had told the driver to try to adjust his trip to suit our time . Normally it used to take about 20 - 30 mins to come from the nearest town.
Now our wait for the chilled beer eagerly began from around 11.30 am hoping that the jeep driver might some how turn up early .This anticipation was akin to the whole nation waiting a yearlong for Sachin’s hundredth ton. Believe me guys, In a remote village with very little to do to while the time away and your relatives always around you leaving no privacy with your new wife, there was nothing more tempting than a couple of cold beers at that point followed by some yummy non veg food.
My Uncle was excited too as he would be able to have some beer in the afternoon without my aunt nagging him as it was the first time we newlyweds were visiting him.
But to add to our woes there was no sign of the jeep or the beer even at 1 pm. Mobile phones were a rarity and a status symbol those days with vulgar incoming and outgoing charges, my guess is that only the Ambani brothers talked freely on the phone as we now do,The others just bought a phone as a status symbol and to pretend to talk on it when in the presence of the fairer sex and anyway the village dint have any network.
After a long wait, Finally at 2.30 pm the ladies in the house who were hungry decided to do a Mamta Banerjee on us to have lunch and we had to give in reluctantly like our Sardarji PM. With heavy hearts and long faces we sat down for lunch reluctantly our ears aching for that sound of the jeep engine.
Midway through lunch we got some shocking news from some people of the town that the jeep carrying our beer on the way to our village had fallen into a deep gorge and the jeep driver was injured and was admitted to a local hospital.
Blaming it on bad luck we carried on with the lunch and we went to my aunts place to have dinner and rest for the night there, We promised my Uncle we would drop in briefly when we were returning the next day.
The next day as we visited him he smirkingly showed me the local newspaper which had reported the Jeep incident promptly. It was mentioned that the Jeep driver fell into the deep gorge injuring himself and other passengers. Local Police reported it as a case of negligence due to drunken driving as Police had found Broken beer bottles at the spot.
My Uncle informed me that the driver known to him was a teetotaler and had never taken any sort of alcohol in his life. It was just his bad luck that he just kept those beer bottles meant for us under his seat.
The Cops in that remote little town then did not have any checking facility to ascertain whether he was really drunk and just inferred at it with the visual evidence. The poor driver was booked under drunken driving.
Life indeed is strange, sometimes you get blamed for something you haven’t done and sometimes you get praised for stuff you don’t deserve. Sometime you are the statue and sometime you are the pigeon.
Well to explain in a simpler language, sometime you are Tendulkar and sometimes you are Rohit Sharma, On the contarary you just have to thank your stars if you don’t end up a Sreeshanth….
