We had a holiday on the holi day. It was in the middle of the week so I decided to stay back in pune instead of running to Mumbai like every Friday. Wifey had been to USA on an assignment about a month back. I decided to sleep till afternoon but my colleagues had a different plan on their mind. One of them had bought a new bike about a month back. He was done with his running-in period and wanted to take his bike somewhere. He convinced couple of others too and finally everyone except me wanted to go somewhere. Being a lead of the team I did not want to break the enthu of the team (oh yes, that is one of the rare project where the lead was welcomed in extracurricular activities ;), so I decided to join too.
I suggested them to ride till Mangaon via Mulshi Tamhini and come back. We decided to meet at Chandni chowk in the morning.
As usual I was the first person to reach there, but to my surprise everyone gathered within next 10-15 mins. Couple of them came without the helmet. I sent them back to get the helmet. Meanwhile we decided to have the breakfast and play chutkibhar sindoor holi there. After about an hour both of them came back with their helmets and we started our ride.The ride while going towards tamhini was very good. We passed through the small yet beautiful towns of pirangut and Mulshi. Stopped at a few places to click pictures near the Mulshi lake.
When we reached tamhini ghat, everyone wanted to get their photos clicked in front of the awesome scenery of the ghat. They kept on passing one by one through different sections of the ghat and kept clicking the pictures.
I was feeling hungry so I wanted to go back and have something. We decided to drop Mangaon and head back home from Tamhini itself. Rest of the team was happy clicking pictures so we decided to break into two groups and meet at the restaurant in Paud. So four of us decided to go and reserve the table. Three of them were still not satisfied with the pictures and they decided to join us within 15 mins.
So we came to Paud. The restaurant (forgot the name) was full of colorful people. As the restaurant was full, we decided to wait for the remaining three. We waited for almost an hour but they didn’t come. Unfortunately the cell phone network was not good during those days so we couldn’t contact them. I started fearing for the worst. We had signals in Paud so I asked couple of them to wait there and find out the contact #s for local police and ambulance. I headed back with one of the colleague. I saw a big group gathered near a village between Mulshi and Paud. I was praying that my worst fear should not come true. I stopped and immediately went there. There was one bike standing in broken condition. The headlights were broken and there were some scratches on the bike. I recognized the bike. It was from our group and people were beating the rider. I immediately went there and tried stopping these people from beating him. I think I was the only person that time who knew the local language. Somehow I managed to calm them down.
Apparently they kept clicking pics for a long time. He was riding carefully through the village and kids were throwing the water balloons on him. To avoid getting hit from them he sped up and suddenly one little girl came in front of him. He managed to brake but he still hit her and she fell down. It was just a gentle push and the girl was fine without any scratch. However people saw this happening and gathered around him. They broke his bike and started beating him. That’s when I reached there. Luckily I reached there on time.
I started talking to the mob. Somehow I managed to calm them down. Now they were talking. I was shit scared. Now these people wanted money to treat her. Following was the rough conversation that I had.
One of the villagers (V): We need to take her to the doctor. Give us Rs. 5000 for that.
Me: but she looks fine. She doesn’t even have any scratches.
V: She got hit internally. She is feeling dizzy since the impact.
She looked scared but not dizzy in any way.
Me: In that case lets take her to the doctor together. I will bear all the expenses even if they are over Rs.5000.
V: Why do you want to waste your time on this? Give us the money and go. We will take care of it.
I wasn’t simply ready to give the money. For the matter of the fact that we did not have 5000 on us that time.
Me: No, that’s fine. I will come with you.
V: Today is holi. No clinic will be opened. Give us the money and we will take her to the doctor tomorrow.
Me: I don’t have that much of money. Let’s take her to some hospital in Pune that case. There I can pay by the card.
Now they started getting irritated.
V: Give the money and go otherwise we will break all the bikes.
Me: Look whatever has happened has happened. If you want to go to the doctor, I will come with you and pay for the entire treatment. You won’t get anything by breaking our bikes and beating us. If that happens then you won’t be able to treat her. Bla bla bla…
V: Then let’s call police.
Me: Fine. Let’s call police. If police comes, then they will take money from you and me too and still you wont get anything.
V: Give us whatever you have with you and go. Otherwise we will break your bikes.
We all got together. Since the girl was not injured and didn’t really need a treatment, there was no point in calling the police. We would have spent even more there. Also there was no point in getting our bikes broken. One was already broken. We decided to give them money. We gave them some Rs250 and left from there. Luckily there was no damage to the engine of the broken bike. It started and ran without any issue till home.
By the time we reached home it was 4 pm and I was very hungry. I ate lunner (lunch+dinner) together and slept at 5pm. I got up only on the next day to go to office.
Lessons learnt
1. Never ride on a holi day
2. Never argue with the locals
3. Never break the riding group unless it is absolutely necessary.
