Dealing with A Road Accident in India

As I had mentioned in my Trip to Kodaikanal, I met we an accident while going from Bangalore to Kodaikanal around 12:15 in the afternoon.

Mistake was clearly of the bus driver's because he hit me from behind and even driver accepted his mistake. I called Hyundai Servicing people, and described them about damage, They gave me approximate budget of Rs. 35k!!

I told driver either you repair my car or give me the money to repair, or we will have to go to police. I talked to bus owner as well and he was not ready to give more than 5k. So no use, i thought at least I would lodge a complaint and teach him a lesson, very littel i knew that I am going to teach a lesson to myself.

I managed to get Phone number of SP Nammakkal district (thanks to information available on web, and my Friend Ashish in Bangalore). I called him and police was there soon, the inspector was good, and tried for a settlement. But the bus owner was adamant.

So finally I decided to lodge a complaint. And the drama starts here. After basic inquiry police agreed to file an FIR. Suddenly the good inspector left the Police station (not to return till evening) and the Mamo0 (constable) and sub inspector started behaving strangely. They were getting over friendly with the driver and bus conductor, that made me uncomfortable. Later I learned that they got a call from Bus owner and he made them a good "Offer"

First of all, I could not understand Tamil, so I had tough time understanding them. There were few sentences mamoo told me, I remember are "You are a Software engineer and get good money, our government don't give us anything, i just get 10k/month after 15 years of service", "If you are coming to Tamilnadu, you should have learned Tamil", I have felt like alien many time while living in southern part of my own country (India), but never mind "Unity in Diversity" has its own cost. I hope it will improve as we become more "Educated".

Finally they were done with FIR at around 2:40 (yes it took almost 3 hours to register a damn FIR) After that he told me i need to go to RTO for "Motor Vehicle Inspection" (MVI), I told why, they told me they can't release the vehicle until i do that. Only later i learned that it was necessary only to release the Bus & Bus driver. anyway it took goo 1 hour wait before we could start for MVI, they were making sure all the things were "set". Mind you I had my mother sister, my friend, his wife and their 4 months old son. And they were all sitting out roadside, and this very painful.

We first went to court, where they got bail for the driver, and than we went to RTO. RTO inspection got over and than, II asked for RTO report. The mamoo told me i can get it only on Monday, hmm. I told him I will not be available in Namakkal on Monday. Guess what he asked, he told me he can courier me the report if I pay him 2000/- Rs. !!!!

I tried calling SP office again, but every thing was "set" there. The phone operator was not willing to transfer phone, as soon as I started speaking in English, he told me the SP is not available and will not be available till tomorrow.

I knew damage has been done, I learnt a big lesson that day "Don't rely on law and order in India if you are a commoner"

So here are my tips for you, to deal with a road accident:

1. If you register a case, proceedings will be either in the court of accident location or near residence of accused. So no point arguing if you had accident away from your city of residence.
2. On the spot settlement is best, you save time and you get some money. Otherwise both parties waste time, the accused end up giving money to Police, and who know you might also.
3. Even if you want to register a case, FIR is more than enough, RTO MVI inspection not really needed for you, you can take pictures of vehicles, that will help you.
4. And of course if you are in "Alien" country, you are already on disadvantage, so even if you are loosing little, agree for settlement.
   

I wish if i could fight against the system, but at that point my priorities were different, so i choose not to. But If someone is willing, I will provide all the help I can.

BTW, I got my car repaired, total cost was 35k, 25k was paid by insurance company and 10k by me.

One day trip to Chennai for B1/B2 Visa

Was in chennai for B1/B2 Visa on 16th of Oct. This was one day trip so, and my poor company didn't book hotel for me, so I had to go directly to consulate from airport and come back.

Anyway i reached MAA (Chennai Airport) at around 10:00 AM in the morning. I hired a Taxi (Prepaid taxi) for Rs. 200 to US consulate. I was at consulate at 11:30. My appointment was at 2:15 and learnt that coming early doesn't help here. At most you *should* come just 30 mins before interview time. It was very hot and humid so obviously i had no intention to be in Queue for next 3 hours.

Lunch at Sravana Bhavan:
If you start walking towards spencer plaza from consulate (consulate Main gate will on your right hand side). Keep right while walking,after 5 mins you will see a diversion. Keep right on the diversion, after that you will see a flyover, don't go over that, just keep right here as well. You will see Shravana Bhavan on right hand side. I had my lunch there. I didn't like the food here as such, I had business lunch, probabaly that was a bad choice. But good thing was hotel was air-conditioned, I spent around 1.5 hours there.

At Consulate:
Its not a good idea to stand in Queue in front of consulate for long, it doesn't help. I saw many people who were standing in Queue for more then an hour and few people who just made it in time. The both entered the gate together. You just need to show your appointment letter and if your time is now, you don't need to be in Queue. So reach there approximately 10-15 mins before appointment time.
Do not carry any bag or cellphone to consulate, it might cost you 100/-. Bags and cellphones are not allowed in consulate, all the documents should be in a transparent cover. I was carrying my bag and cellphone, because i didn't book a hotel. So policeman suggested my to keep in the nearby tea shop, it costs 50/- for bag and 50/- for cellphone. I had no other option so i agreed.

Anyway, my interview was done by 5:30. I immediately headed back to Airport. I think Airport is best place in whole chennai, atleast its not hot and humid (thanks to A/c). I had snacks at Sangeeta Veg on Airport. The Idaly-Vada was really good. Much much better than ShravanaBhavan and cheaper also.

My flight was at 8:30, and i reached bangalore around 10:00 and home around 11:00.

Good news is I got the visa!!

Trip to Kodaikanal

This my first Blog, and I am starting with writing about a memorable trip. The Round trip was 4 days between 22nd and 25th September. The group for this trip was my mother, my sister Anuradha, my childhood friend Montu (Vivek) his wife Shilpi and their 4 months old son Vansh.

Before travelling to any place I generally try to get some information about the place, and most obvious source for information is WWW. Here are some of the Information I found useful:

1. www.mapmyindia.com : I took the Map of Kodaikanal and the Route Map from Bangalore to Kodai from here. Rouote Map was very useful as I was driving and had no information about the area.
   
2. http://www.kodaikanal.org : This has decent information about Kodai, I specially liked the History of Kodai and Animals in Kodai section.
3. http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net : You should read at least this if you are in hurry. This has almost all the information you might need.
4. http://wikitravel.org/en/Kodaikanal: This did not had much information about Kodai when I visited, but I am hopeful that this will have infomation when you visit. I am putting some of the information here.

We planned to leave bangalore at 4:00 AM on 22nd, but we could only start at 7:00 AM :-) Our first stop was at Hosur for breakfast. We didn't expect much at the small hotel in Hosur but the Idaly vada and sambhar was really good. The NH7 Highway till Krishnagiri is really good, I loved driving on it. There was not much traffic on the Highway everyone else in car was sleepy after breakfast in the morning and I could touch peak speed of 140 km/h. But after Krishngiri road was really bad, its just 2 lane Highway and the truck drivers and Bus drivers drive as if they are driving on same 4 lane highway. We had to obviously cut down on speed to approx 40-50 kmph.

Everything was going fine, we were enjoying untill we met with an accident near Namakkal. A bus driver hit us from behind. It was his mistake so we insisted that we lodge a police complaint. Little did i know at that time how painful it could be to deal with police that too in a alien environment . I will cover this in a separate blog.

Anyway we after accident we wasted approximatly 5 hours in Namakkal and we could leave only at around 5 PM. We decided to proceed to Kodaikanal instead of going back, but on the way we realized that lock of the Boot was also not functioning properly. So we decided to spend night at Dundigul, and get the car repaired to a drivable condition.

Dundigul is a small town, but it has got decent hotel, Hotel Gomath. The staff at the hotel was very good and helful, Facilities in hotel were ok. 450 Rs for a double bedroom was reasonable. By the way after spending 2 hours in night, we could find a Garage and got the Lock fixed. We started from Dundigal next day morning at 8:00. We stopped at Vatthalagundu for Idaly vada, spent good 45 minuts there.

We had to take a right turn after Vatthalagundu, but somehow I managed to missed the turn and went 15 km before realizing the mistake. This Turn somehow didn't look very obvious, although the clear landmark is a Indian Oil Petrol Pump, I am putting tthe photo of the turn here.

We reached Silver Cascade Waterfall at around 11:00. This was a decent place to have some fun, and flex muscle in close to nature. Though this is not a quite place, its commercialization is obvious as this is a decent water fall on the way to Kodaikanal (probably just 4 km before the city) lot of people around, and lot of people trying to sell you something from eatable to hotel rooms. You get farm fresh carrots here, we loved them. The waterfall is decent, not big though and you can't go to the waterfall touch the water etc. But the sound of flowing water itself is so soothing and refreshing that you can forget all your tiredness.

We reached Kodai Bus stand, this is the central place in Kodaikanal also called Annasalai. We went to Tourist office there (phone # 41675) in case you need it. Don't expect much help from the tourist office.

You will get many guides at Bus Stand who may offer you various tours. Since I had done some research about Kodaikanal and had few must visit places in Mind, so i decide not go for pre-decided tours by guides. Luckily we found one Guide/old man called Israel. He agreed to spent full day with us for Rs. 150. He didn't had much historic information (First of all kodai is not historic place, second I was more interested in Nature then History and Story), But he knew Kodai pretty well, he knew roads and people around.

First day we just drove inside Kodai, It was raining havily and was all misty so we couldn't see anything, but we could feel the Nature. It was good fresh air

We started our tour from Crooker's Walk. This is a good nice place to hang on. Vivek and his wife spent time in puchasing some dresses for their kid, My mom was enjoying as she could drive her Power scooter at the Crooker's walk.

Then we went to pillar rock, we spent 30 mins searching for Rocks but we could only see mist and clouds, Thought i could find some good flowers so took some photograph's there.

After that we went to Pine Forest.. It was again misty, i couldnot see things on the road, and it was hilly. I enjoyed driving here. We reached there around 4:00, There were not many vehical coming that place.. and so it was very quite and peaceful... sometimes the forest looked scary as it was getting dark also.
We also went to few more places (Mohr's Point, Green Valley View, Scuide Point, Lake View) etc. But story eveywhere was same we could only see mist. We had discoverd one good thing Home Made chocolates available all over Kodai, when we were wandering in the city, and best part is shopkeeper ask you to taste you before you buy.. So first day we were testing (or tasting) chocolates.

Finally we went to see Palani View/Kurunji Andwar Tample (Palani is a place 60 Km for Kodai and also the hill range which Kodai belongs is called Palani Hills - eastward extension of Western Ghats) I had always loved Western Ghats for their calmness, and I was loving their cousin Palni hills as well.

We were also searching for some places to stay as were going places. Youth Hostel was full, Hotel Paradise Inn was also full. We went to few more Cottages and Hotels courtesy Mr. Israel (our guide), but we didn't like anything. The Palani View is near Kurunji Andawar Tample, though i didn't go to the temple, but this temple is quite famous. My Sister found out a good Cottege called Kurunji Cottege near the Kurunji Andawar Temple, it was specious decent house with good view, We got Two double bedrooms just for Rs. 650/day. and we could use Kitchen, Dining, Drawing room etc.

The Pristine Lake (Berijam Lake)
I had heard about Berijam Lake. Israel told me that it is inside forest and every vehicle need a forest pass to go to Berijam Lake. Berijam Lake is approximately 20 km inside the forest . The forest passes are not easily available as there are very limited number of passes available (approximately 20) and most of the passes are acquired by Taxi Drivers and Bus Drivers. Taxi drivers then charge you 150 Rs. per person to go to Berijam Lake. So you have to be really early to Forest office to submit the application if you need pass. We asked Israel to get the passes next day, and he agreed to get us the pass for 100/-. He was there at forest office at 7:30. He submitted the application; I and Montu Reached there around 8:30. That day being Sunday it took some time for Permissions to get approved. The applications had to be sent to DFO's home to get signed. It was such a relief to get those passes around 11:00 AM, I could see the disappointment at many faces for Not getting passes. And mind you forest pass is only valid between 11 to 3:30, after which they do not allow people around berijam lake because of fear of Bison and other Animals.

We had breakfast after getting passes and then started only around 12:00 from our Cottage. Then there was a big Traffic Jam before the Pine Forest, We were stuck in the the traffic Jam for about 1:30 Hours. We were entering the forest around 2:00 PM. All the Vehical were returning while we were going towards Berijam Lake. We stopped at few more places (Berijam Lake View and few more place). We were progressing at our own pace enjoying the Forest and nature. We reached the Berijam Lake around 3:00 which is almost closing time :-) but again Israel came to our rescue (specially because we could not understand Tamil)

Berijam Lake is awesome place.. so quite and calm. you can understand the charm of the place that I had camera with me but forgot to take the photographs.. i was just busy admiring the nature.. The peace was more visible because we were the only people in the area.. all other human animals had left. So me and nature could spend some time together.. uninterrupted. But this didn't last long, we had to leave the place by 4:30.

Shopping & Cycling
After coming back we bought lots of chocolates (finally after tasting chocolates in each and every shop in Kodaikanal :-) ). And finally we went to Kodai lake in the evening.. did cycling there. Generally Cycling rental shop close around 8:00, we reached there at 7:45, the shop owner agreed to give us cycles if we could return it back by 8:3o. The cycling again was fun because we had very little crowd around the lake and it was misty dark at some places and and almost no noise.

Astoria Veg Restaurant
We finally had dinner in Astoria Veg restaurant. This is I think best Veg restaurant in KodaiKanal, and prices are also reasonable. Next day morning we could finally start at time, We started from our cottage around 7:00, had breakfast again at Astoria. And then started back to Bangalore...

Journey Back
Stopped again at Silver Cascade waterfalls, this time waterfall was sightly thicker as it rained heavily for last tow days. We again had Fresh Carrots. Everything was going fine, till it started raining around Omular, it was heavy rains and i had to drop my speed to 30-40kmph range. Rain continued till we reached Krishnagiri. after which i again had a free hand and could touch 140kmph multiple times. Worst part was after entering bangalore. It took us good 1:30 Hours to reach Silkboard circle from Electronic City. This was most tiring part of Journy..

It was wonderful trip and a good break. I wanted to go to Dolphin Nose but could not go there.. no problem, I next time when i be in Kodai, i'll make sure to find some time for trekking.. Kodai is surly a good place to have a break (Specially in off-season)

Some Fun Photos:

From Left to Right (Vansh, me, Montu, Israel)

More photos of the trip: