The Scooter and How it was Almost Towed!!

When this incident happened to me a week ago, I promised to myself that I will blog about this.So, here goes.

It was a cool evening and all of us at home wanted to order something from outside for dinner.As usual, we thought of the most obvious place,Adyar Anand Bhavan which is situated on CMH Road in Indira Nagar which was around 8 Kms from our home.Also,I had got a new scooter,Honda Activa Vroooooommmm recently, so I had no hesitation in agreeing to get the food parceled so that we could eat at home.So, I ventured out on my scooter and headed to CMH Road.I should say, the traffic situation in Bangalore is pretty worse than most other places in India(as if you do'nt know !!).So, I was pretty happy that I could reach the place safely without any (major!!) hassles.Once there,I parked my vehicle next to another vehicle with some difficulty and went inside and got the food.When I came out, I could'nt find my vehicle in the location I parked.I was momentarily shocked! Where did my vehicle go?I thought maybe I was looking at the wrong place and searched for my dear scooter(it was the first week,damn it !!) feverishly.But, I could not find it.Frantically,I asked one of the guys who was standing nearby,"Sir, Did you see a Black Honda Activa here ?".The guy replied,"Oh! that vehicle was just towed by the police.They are taking it in that Tiger.Run after it".I galloped after the police vehicle as if my life depended on it.For my good luck , the vehicle stopped at the signal.The truck was a Mazda kind with the top open so that vehicles can be placed into it.And there it was, among the 3 other vehicles, was my dear scooter.I thanked God.Once I told the guy that the Honda was my scooter, he asked me to hop in the vehicle.So, here I was, one hand clutching the dosas & idlis & vadas that I purchased,getting on top of the open top van.There were 4 guys in the van(one each for the 4 vehicles).They told me that my vehicle was parked in a "No Parking" Zone and so it was being towed.But, if I paid 300 bucks(bribe,of course) to him, I could take the vehicle and there would be no case.I was ready to pay anything to get my scooter back !! Then came the most embarrassing part.We had to go till the police station where the scooter would be given back to me and the route which we took led us through the crowded market place with its horn blaring.It was almost as if we were the Australian cricket team going on a victory parade through the streets of Sydney on an open-top motorcade but the only difference here was that I was the subject of ridicule and not adulation.I could hear two guys chuckling,"Hey,look here, this is the guy who's bike has been towed"!All through the ordeal, I was trying to avoid eye-contact with any of the hordes of people(who have no better job than standing and staring at urs truly who looked out-of-place with Adyar Anand Bhavan food packets amongst these guys,I would put it differently, I was like "a shining beacon in the darkness!!").Finally, the vehicle came to a stop at the end of the market road.As agreed, I paid the guy what he wanted and stormed out of the place.I had quite a story to tell when I reached home.Nowadays, I try not to ride through CMH Road and even if I pass through,I try not to park there.But still, I end up doing both and also end up purchasing food from Adyar Anand Bhavan every other week.The Food there keeps me going !!