Crisises

It was Friday night and I a whole long weekend of no plans to look forward to.

I was sitting in my car systematically messaging everybody in my contact list on my phone to make plans. Of course everybody was already at river lodges or out of town or being cool to want to accompany me to the movies or such like. But hey at least I was on my way for 'drinks' with a friend at that very moment.
(Of course the next day was elections so there was no place we could have drinks. My friend and I would find out and quickly reschedule another restaurant...and another...and another..... little knowing that almost any eatery/drinkery in that area was shut that day....we would discover it...in most exasperating circumstances)

As I resigned myself to a dullish slothful activityless weekend feeling a tiny bit sorry for myself, the bright brigade road lights not offering much comfort, I was startled out of my reverie to notice we were not moving. Even though the signal was green, even though we weren't in the middle of a traffic jam.

"Whats the problem?", I asked.

"The vehicle wont start", said my driver stating the obvious.
( yes I have a driver I dont know how to drive I am very ashamed of myself.....but I shamed myself further with what I did next)

"Dadeee the car has stop what do I do", I wailed into the phone (Seriously dude. I dint know what else to do. It was the middle of brigade MG road junction road. People were honking behind me. My friend was calling a million times...cos every place we wanted to go was shut, and also she was now being followed by a creepy boy)

" So you can, maybe, perhaps, consider, figure out yes? no?" stuttered and stammered my clueless father. "Get some people to help you and push it to the corner", he instructed shaking himself out of his confusion "Then we will see."

Einstein!

So i looked hither and thither in my most frail and helpless manner, wringing my hands, flicking my hair looking, hoping some big strong people would come and help me with this giant car and also tell me what to do next. My driver looked small and harried and jumped about also rather uselessly. A bunch of auto drivers looked at curiously and passively. "Dont bother us. If you ask us to help you we will laugh at you" their quite kind curious eyes seemed to say. Nevertheless we asked them and they laughed at us and we resumed looking harried and frail.

My driver dug out some old manual and spotted a helpline number. I called them from my mobile explained my predicament. They listened and offered helpful suggestions - PUSH the car and it will start.

No strong persons seemed to be available or on their way. So I pushed the car hardly expecting the scorpio to move but hallelujah it did!! and strong people did come to rescue . Well strong person. One man...half heartedly he helped me push the car. The car wouldnt start but was safely moved to one side of the road. We called the help line again who insisted we should just push hard enough.

"Enough is enough send a tow truck", I ordered. '
"No we will not call another garage", they replied. (They did kindly give me a number though).

So I called them. They other garage told us to push the car and see if it started. I told them I tried that they dint believe me. My driver told them we tried that and they believed him. Meanwhile my friend checked out each and every restaurant in the area, creepy boy in tow, found them all closed and decided that the only thing left to do was to collapse in a coffee shop and slurp iced teas till such time as I resolved my dilemma.

The rescuers arrived tow truck and all. But first they looked under the hood, inside the car, at the wheels and then...they got behind the car and gave it a giant push and of course it started! Except now it couldnt stop they said. If it did, it would not start again. So I gave my driver instructions to ride like the wind and not stop till he reached home where the problem could be safely handed over to dadee, while I went to collapse and slurp iced teas myself.

Give me an eventless weekend anyday