It was a routine drive back home from evening after work. But an hour and ten minutes later, I was slightly short of being half-way home. The drive back usually takes me just an hour on the worst of days. But this had been an evening of rain and unusually bad traffic jams all the way.
I had an important office call in another 10 minutes at 8 pm. So I pulled the car onto a deserted stretch on the opposite side of the road—where I thought I wouldn’t be in anyone’s way—and took the call.
The only problem was that my ‘deserted stretch’ turned out to be not so deserted in some time. Bikers from the opposite side of the road got onto the stretch as well to beat the never-ending traffic jam, merrily braving the stream of vehicles riding into them.
I turned my headlights and indicator on just to ensure that one of them didn’t ram into me.
An hour later my call was done and I was ready to get back home. The only problem was that my car didn’t seem so ‘ready’ to join me. An hour with the headlight on, and that on a cold and rainy evening, had drained the battery out.
I dialed BS. There was another time where I had left my car’s headlight on for half the night and my battery had gone dead. On that occasion I’d been with BS and her family. Her brother B had helped me get in touch with an all-night service, and we’d managed to jumpstart the car.
But BS’ line was busy. There was a moment of fear. BS has this habit of ‘missing’ her missed calls. But that night, though she was out driving, she did call back.
She volunteered to get me the number, and she did. But when I dialed that phone number, I found that I was dialing in to a number that did not exist.
I called BS again, and that’s when the truth came tumbling out. Her brother B’s wife was in labour, and she could not disturb him.
I told her not to worry. There were other friends who I could reach out to, especially on a night when my dear friend’s only brother was having his first baby J
I tried starting the car again. It spluttered and went dead.
I called my mum’s friend Aunty R—the first woman I’d met who handled her own car with panache. No one picked up the phone. I remembered that she was spending a month at her son D’s home, and I didn’t have his number.
One more attempt at starting the car did not get me anywhere. By this time it was 9:30 and only getting later.
I tried MC–another girlfriend who was really good at cars. No she did not know any all-night service stations and she was just logging out from work, but she could search for them online or drive across and join me. This from an office that was almost 30 km away.
I told her not to worry. I could get the number over the Internet as well. After all, I still had my last trump card—my laptop and my datacard were both in my car. If nothing else, I could at least get all the information I needed via the world wide web (why hadn’t I thought of that???!).
I pulled out my laptop, but as my hand groped desperately into the darkness, there was no sign of the datacard. There was a sinking feeling in my heart as I remembered taking the datacard out of my laptop bag last night. Had I put it back?
In desperation I made one last ditch attempt to get the car started again.
This time, almost miraculously, it spluttered, and then came alive.
I drove without stopping till I reached home—the golden rule with a ‘dead’ battery that you manage to revive.
As I drove back, CR (who’d been alerted by MC) called to find out if she could drive across and help me jumpstart my car. BS’ husband SV also texted me the number of the Maruti helpline. As it turned it out, very soon later, BS & SV’s little nephew took his first tentative steps into the world.
Later, when I reached home, I also found that my datacard had always been in my bag!!!!
So I guess if you’re ever stranded on the road on a dark lonely rainy night, it’s important to have your wits and your friends around you. But most importantly, if you have a Maruti car, dial 18004200. It’s the Maruti 24×7 helpline number, and it works!
