Sharp U-turn!

I'm mad. Really really really boiling mad. Am enraged. It's the kind of furious which is mixed with equal parts helplessness. Where you know you don't have a choice but to give in because you can't beat the system. And what a system!

So here I was thinking of this super song called 'Wonderwall' sung by Oasis playing on the radio. It set me thinking about something and I was thinking of blogging about it and then thought maybe it'd be inappropriate and then the next song which also I really really like called 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol set me thinking again. The lyrics are so dreamy, not the kind that you would expect this gen. of musicians to write or set to music. What intrigued me were the following lines:
If I lay here If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world? (and then a few stanzas later)

Let's waste time
Chasing cars around our heads

Intriguing because, imagine actually sitting around idling with a pina colada in a Goan chair on a sunlit porch with a book or maybe a gorgeous labrador or a German shepherd lolling besides you and you actually idle time by chasing cars around your head? What an absolutely refreshing and compelling idea?!

In fact imagine telling someone you really liked or maybe even came to love and cherish, 'Look jaan, let's just lie here...not do anything, just lie here. I don't want to do anything but lie here and probably stare at the patterns in the sky where the clouds look like little smileys and I want to forget the world. So hey, I don't have money to splurge and take you to a hot nightspot or shop around or do something fancy, in fact I don't even have money for cutting chai, so all I want to do is lie here with you and forget the world. Would you lie here with me and waste some time?' I think it's haunting in its simplicity. I'd love to do that if someone asked me, but let's not waste time about why no one ever will.

After musing over matters sublime, I reach home to 2 inland letters. Did you know that inland letters are no longer blue in colour? Or are they? Maybe these were special as they'd come from the Transport Department and were a buff colour. Nice I must say. But that's where the sublime thoughts encountered a wonderwall and had to brake and take a sharp U. These were bloody notices for traffic violation. Date of violation and nature of offence and sum of monies to be paid were all neatly typed in the inland letter template and sent to me.

Date of violation: 12/03/07
----------------------------
Place : M G Road
----------------------------
Time: 6.20 pm
----------------------------------------------
Nature of offence: Holding mobile while driving
-----------------------------------------------
Amount : Rs.100/-

Is there some adage about good things coming in twos? Well I was certainly the blessed one. The cops were being generous and so I had committed not one but 2 offences.

Date of violation: 12/03/07
--------------------------------
Place : M G Road
-------------------------------
Time: 6.20 pm
--------------------------------------
Nature of offence: Rash driving
---------------------------------
Amount : Rs.300/-

(Mister God, if you really love me, right now all I ask of you is to give me some patience. Not some but loads of it. Truck loads of it. I was praying because by such time I was ready to explode and that's not a very pretty sound or sight.)

My life being what it is, I know which route I travel by, where I go, what time I go, and so on. My memory being what it is, I usually can remember sometimes almost to the minute where I was on a particular day and what I was wearing or doing. It's not genius. It's simple because my life is about routine. It follows the straight and narrow. Deviations are rare. It so happens that I did take a different route and thus crossed said road. At the time mentioned? Not possible. On the day mentioned, highly unlikely.

So how do I prove that I'm innocent? Firstly within 7 days of the issuance of said notice, I , the offender and violator of traffic etiquette and law, am supposed to pay the penalised sum and absolve myself of said transgression of traffic rules. In case I refuse to do so, within said timeframe, I would be liable to pay Rs.500/- with/ or 3 months of imprisonment. Of course if I contested this notice, I would end up in a civil court, plead not guilty, spend maybe 10 times the penalised amount, not to mention the time and energy wasted in an attempt that actually might not go in my favour. If I ask for evidence, they should ideally show me the captured footage by traffic cameras of said offence. But dare I ask? Dare I make a mockery of a system, me a woman driver to boot? No of course not. I'm just supposed to show up, feel apologetic when actually seething with resentment, anger and frustration, pay up and then go my merry way, a free woman. (What absolute rot and bull crap! I could throttle all the cops right now.)

In fact I've asked for my cell phone statement for that particular day to see if I had perhaps made a call at said hour on said day, which I know is impossible, because it's my cardinal rule never ever to make calls while driving and very very very rarely speak without my 'hands free'. Of course on the rare occasions I've been guilty of speaking on the phone, it's always been a quick, 'call you back, driving' . So when such a notice comes to me, of all the people and for driving rashly, me, rashly...yeah me and rashly....Jesus I could, I could...I could just pummel someone senseless. Bullshit! In fact it's making me sick to the stomach.

Guess after all this raving and ranting, I've just got to rev up my engine and pay up. Who said life is fair and fortune favours the right or brave? In case someone did, then they were on Prozac.