Chapter XVI
A Miss: The Lunch Box Journal
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As the journey was getting resumed, they encountered an unexpected turbulence in their so-called-almost-otherwise-perfect iron clad trip. What they had encountered was completely a bizarre situation, which could have been solved promptly, but people have a knack for getting into fights, turning nothing into much bigger fights. The problem with the people onlooking is that they think they are helping in solving the problem, but in actuality, they are the ones making it bigger. But then again, a fight needs two people to start off with, who if wanted could solve the problem at hand without much ado, but everyone wants to have the last word and on top of it, it gets more complicated with damages incurred, mostly in case of accidents because then they deal with the money and everyone wants money. Probably, ₹13580/- could have solved the problem, but who had that much money in their pocket, apparently not them. In retrospect, the other party would try their best not to give a single penny, even if it was their fault. Their way of solving their mistake is by insurance. Of course, insurance does the job, way too well, doesn’t it? But then again, who was stopping them from making an extra buck while the insurance took care of their damages.
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After their almost-sumptuous dinner, as they were heading out, they hit a car which was right behind them while they were taking their vehicle out. And as usual, the concerned people came out and somehow the driver whose mistake it was basically, made the issue bigger than it usually was supposed to be. The second car owner’s (lady’s) economical deduction was an icing on the cake, of course, there wasn’t no cake, nothing sweet about it either. But it was meant to be taken in the positive sense of humor because not only was that outrageous to even begin with, it was a very clever deduction, without a doubt. Taking into account the dedication that these people were taking to stand their ground, it was quite evident that this issue won’t be solved anytime soon. It took a turn for the once when they decided to involve the cops. It would be a clever idea if there was an actual damage and it was so critical that it had to take a step further for the cops to get involved especially considering that the time was almost midnight. Taking into note the triviality of the issue, the pissed off cops who were called at the late hour of the night decided to take the matter to their station. The reason was pretty simple which was the bride they would now be getting to let them go. The damaged car people were supposed to follow them to the station, but they wanted something else for their damages – which was to make these whole bunch to sty until the next morning at the station. They were trying to find solace in torture in any way possible, be it making them stay overnight at the police station.
As they reached the Police station, they realized that the damaged car people were not going to come. They seemed to have told the cops to make them stay overnight. The cops were quite generous to pass along the information, but they still weren’t ready to let them go. They wanted money. The whole country runs on money, and these were no different. If they were to be different and fair and just, they would have to make them stay overnight and wait until the Superintendent InCharge arrives at the station so that they could officially take a complaint and do their police-ing to solve the matter at hand. The people in the bus were ready to spend the night at the police station. Their perfect iron clad plan could wait for six hours. What’s the worst that could happen besides them canceling their first plan? It was thought of in the last moment anyway while they started their journey.
The main culprit of all this drama who instead of handling brought himself and his customers into a whole mess was now trying to mend things, the thing which he should have done in the first place back at the place where the accident took place. Now, he was trying his best to mitigate the situation by trying to make is more complicated than it already is. His course of action involved calling the media and complaining about how the Police were treating their customers by making them stay overnight and not taking proper action. A true genius that he was, then calmed down when the cops weren’t budging to his stupid meaningless threats when he came back to the folks to see if they could talk to the cops and get it resolved as soon as possible. The folks in the bus were settling themselves for the overnight haul at the Police Station impound, when Sameer had to attend the nature call, very very urgently. Neil went out to canvas the place and assess the situation and what ground they are standing on to see how it could be mitigated without making much more mess.
Sameer dared and got on with his nature call business, with the police impound. His daring nature needs to be appreciated. He then along with the others went on to canvass the impound lot realizing that they might as well have to spend the whole night in the bus. While Neil was accessing the scenario and trying to solve it to the best of his efforts, which turned out to be fruitful as they finally managed to let them go, Sameer was outside the Police Station trying to make memories, to show off, in the future, by telling stories to his grandkids maybe, or just that fancy club of his that he keeps talking about. As a memory, he took a photo in front of the Station. And somehow, a proof of a thing happening meant that one had to take a selfie to even begin to validate the story, if in case he decides to tell it in the future.
Finally, they were let go without much ado and it was pretty late in the night by then when they started. The next pit stop was still on the plan – Rest up at Gautam’s house. Though the first plan of the trip could possibly be canceled owing to their tiredness and their ability to wake up early in the morning. Because the place they were supposed to visit was to be seen at the break of the night, sunrise, otherwise it is just the same old mountain trek, which was short in itself.
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Did they make it to their first item in their trip plan list? And more importantly, did the rest of the trip went as they had expected? Or was it jinxed with such an unusual start?
( To be continued… )
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If it interests you, you could find the other parts here :
