The Brave Pedestrian

New Delhi, 25 April 2016: This weekend was a nightmare for 33-year-old media professional Mukund Prabhakar, because his new car – a one-year-old Hyundai i20 Elite Sportz – went up in flames where it was parked. Mukund, who works for multinational media and communication agency Dentsu Aegis Network at Gurgaon, recounts his ordeal. "I got home early from work around 6 pm on Friday, and parked the car at the nearest possible location from my residence at Khirki Extension, Malviya Nagar. On Saturday, around 2 pm, the person who washes my car called me to say that my car was in flames. When I reached the spot, a big crowd had gathered, including the police. Within minutes, firemen rushed to spot and put out the blaze with water-hoses, leaving behind a junk heap of ashes." Photo: the burning Hyundai i20 in Malviyanagar, new Delhi, before arrival of the Delhi Fire Brigade. Thankfully, other cars were not parked too close to this Hyundai i20, otherwise the fire might hav...

16th May 2015, Mumbai: Senior Counsel Harish Salve, who flew in from Delhi to help Salman Khan avoid spending a couple of nights in jail, was himself involved in a road accident that killed a man in May 2014 -- just over one year ago. Barely any media group highlighted this news (except DNA, which withdrew the news item hastily). The accident took place in May 2014. Harish Salve’s car was i nvolved in an accident at the Rajpath-Mansingh Road crossing leaving the driver of the other vehicle, Mr. Joginder, seriously injured. Joginder was admitted in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the accident, and expired on 2 May, 2014. Joginder was an employee of the Le Meridien hotel. It is to be noted that Salve himself did not approach the police. Rather it was an unknown caller who informed police about the accident. Joginder died on the day of accident itself in the ICU of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia hospital. Here is the shocking part: On Harish Salve’s instruc...

On December 12 2013, J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “If friends in Mumbai are to be believed, it seems the only people who don’t know who was driving the fancy Aston Martin (worth Rs 4.5 crore) are the Mumbai police.” He was hinting at Akash Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani) Probably that’s when the limelight hit the spot. During the wee hours of Sunday, December 8 2013, a black Ashton Martin Rapide (registration # MH 01 BK 99) belonging to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Por ts, crashed into an Audi and a Hyundai Elantra, at Pedder Road, Mumbai. The crash killed two people. There was NDTV coverage, Business Standard articles and other ambiguous reports informed about some details of the car crash; More recently, some news pieces made the rounds on how the Mumbai police was not keen on arresting one of Reliance’s driver, Mr. Bhansilal Joshi – who, as per Reliance, was driving the car at that time. But Joshi wasn’t arrested even after a full confession. ...

July 27, 2009:  If you folks are civilized when you are behind the steering wheel, then maybe you are more evolved human beings than I am. When I am driving and come across a bunch of pedestrians trying to cross the road, I don’t slow down unless the signal is red. I flash my headlights menacingly, honk my horn and speed up. Translated into words, this action means, “Watch out! I’m bigger and clad in a metal armour! So step out of my way… or else!” When a pedestrian stands in front of my accelerating vehicle, this isn't a friendly warning but a direct threat of physical harm. From where he stands, my car isn't a vehicle of transportation; for him, it is a weapon of death, like a loaded cannon ready to fire. No, we don’t see this as a social injustice because we are all so USED TO IT, dammit! Just as, in the days of feudalistic zamindari and untouchability, neither the overlords nor the downtrodden felt that they were part of an unjust system! They felt it was a normal wa...

Henderson knew all of Tony's annoying habits. He could never switch of his mobile. He always took a call, sometimes after a good deal of confusion and groping in his pockets. As Tony crossed the railway tracks, Henderson saw the train coming from the distance. He needed to slow him down. He phoned, and cut the line. Tony stopped in confusion, groped in his pockets. The phone was in vibrator mode. Without the ringing to guide him, he was helpless to find which pocket it came out of. He looked in his right pants pocket, then his left, and finally found the small phone in his hip pocket. Shitshitshit, he swore, as he looked at the missed-calls list.  “ Heyyy, yedayy! Gaadi aa rahi hai! Gaaadi... ” Tony heard that warning and looked about him in confusion, and saw a light. Then his mobile rang again. “Shit!” he swore. “Shit! Shit!” He pressed the ‘Accept Call’ button. “Hi, Tony. Where are you?” “ Heyyy! Andhay! Paagal! Gaadi dekh! ” He heard the shouted warning, looked about...

For me, Ganesha is there-yet-not-there. I don’t worship God in the form of Ganesha. I probably never will. Ganapati idols and pictures evoke no reverence or feelings of sanctity in me. And yet… and yet… This happened on 18th September 1998: Back then, I was fanatically regular about my daily morning swim, driving to a nearby club in my little green Maruti 800. Dad and Mom often accompanied me. That day, Dad was terribly busy and wouldn’t come. Neither would Mom. “Krish, won’t you stay home and help me out?” Dad pleaded. He isn’t someone who normally asks for help. He isn’t the sort of  guy who would ask me to cancel my swim, knowing how much it meant to me. But that day, he asked, he pleaded. “No, Dad… sorry. I can’t miss my swim.” Blunt refusal. Somewhere inside me, a little niggling voice was asking whether I was doing the right thing, but I brushed it aside. As I drove out of our neighbourhood, its narrow link to the highway was totally blocked, all du...