India diaries- My way, or No way!

He was getting late now- he would be just in time to catch his last train home after dropping us home first. As much as we had rushed our shopping, he rushed to get out of the parking lot. And we would have been on time if our way, right at the end of exit, had not been blocked by another car.

"How can anyone park like this- literally at the exit of Exit?" was the question on our lips.

We tried the right way- asking the mall Security to help us- they could announce the car no. on their PA system and ask the person to park the car out of the Exit route.

"What can we do? It is an 'Open' parking- anyone can park anywhere!" was their reply instead.

"Wow! mera bharat mahaan!" we thought.

But not him.

He got out of the car, losing patience with the situation (someone had already done a double parking behind our car and disappeared- and he had to spend extra 15 minutes manoeuvring the car to get out of that jam position; and now this?). We kept sitting in the car, mute spectators, not knowing what was going on in his mind, except that he was getting angry by the minute.

He bent down. We thought- to look if the car was in 'neutral' and could be pushed to another position in the car park. He squatted near the rear tyre and kept looking at it- for a long while. He did not get up even when another car came up behind ours and started honking for us to get out of the way. He showed his hand in a gesture of 'Wait' to that car- it seemed that car was his car and its tyre had a problem and he was trying to fix it.

After  about five minutes, he told the surrounding rickshaw-walas to move a bit so we could get out- that car was still in our way, and seeing no other way out, he had removed the big stones blocking the side way and took the car out through the sand that had been put for some reason in that Exit way.

As we all heaved a sigh of relief, we asked him what he was looking at.

"I was not looking at anything didi", he said, "main to uski gadi ki hawa nikal raha tha!" (I was deflating that car's tyres!)

"What?" was the exclaimed expression of my elder one.

“But why were you sitting near that car for so long?” I asked.

"I was making sure that the tyre gets FULLY deflated- this person should pay for the inconvenience he has caused to others- by getting inconvenienced himself!”, the driver from the Haryana village said as a matter of fact.

"Oh, is this how revenge is taken in India?" asked my elder one, really innocently.

He laughed and said, “Why not? We tried the right way but it was of no use- you have to fight your own battle here!" he gave his parting advice to my kids.

He missed his last train home that night and had to take lift from a ‘tempo’ going towards his village but he taught us an unforgettable lesson about jungle-raj, living in real India and surviving in spite of not enough resources at your disposal.

I hope that inconsiderate driver also learnt an equally valuable lesson.