Dude, where is my car ????????????

Dude , Where is my Vasu ?

Vasu is the short name for my car ‘Vasumathy’. We named my car so after naming D’s car as Kalyani kutti and A’s car as Meenukutti. (note: these are names of characters from two super hit Malayalam movies of Mohanlal, and when we discussed about naming my car, it was more like Vasumathy, ….athumathy, another movie dialogue, but not from Mohanlal’s movie)

This is happened on a very cold morning in November. The temperature outside my apartment was 26 degree f. (Close to -3 Degree Celsius). Time was around 6: 30 in the morning and I was rushing through my morning routine. I had packed up my lunch (whatever was left behind from the experiment in kitchen the day before), polished my shoes and headed out to the drive way. Then realized that I forgot my company ID card and came back to find that I left my wallet as well! So I had to remove my shoes again and get into the bed room to get all the possessions!
Phew!!!!! what a way to start the day. Doing all this, time was around 6:43. Every day or most of the days I have an in-person meeting with my team at 7:00. So my trip to office is a 20 minutes drive to cover around 17 miles and a 6 minutes’ walk ( others usually takes 12 to 15 minutes ) I have long legs and I always walk like someone is eating my lunch at the other end of the building, so I cut it down to 6 minutes.

So I had all this running in my mind that I am going to be late for today’s meeting as I am already late. To cover a 17 miles drive and a 6 minute superfast stride in 17 minutes, not a chance. I didn’t count the time to start up my vehicle, clean the ice off and warm it up so that it will actually run! Imagining all those, I walked to my drive way and alas!!!!!!!!!! I am looking at a different car in the place I had parked my car yesterday. I had lot of things going on my mind …..

Where did I park my car?
When did I park it?
Do I have my car key?
Where is the insurance paper?
Where is the title?

Do you know the moment your throat just go dry even if it is freezing cold and you were not even close to thirsty? Then the stream of thoughts went something like this ….
Ohh I lost a lot of things with my car ….was it stolen? How will I commute until I get the car / new car …. Lots and lots of questions! Then the thought came to call Thimmashan ( Mr D, who is the car guru in our group. He is a wonderful Business analyst but he love cars) so tapped his number and woke him up on a cold first light ….so the tête-à-tête went like this

D: Halla
Me: My car is missing

D: What???
Me: Eda, My car is not where I had parked it yesterday!

D: Look again, where did you park it yesterday?
Me: In the open parking lot next to our building

D: Are you sure you parked it here, or it was in a marked parking lot
Me: I am pretty sure, I parked it here ….(or if was one lot on the right side thinking in my mind ), So what to do now

D:What else, call up 911 and tell them your care is being stolen!
Me: WHAT ?
Me: Yes , go ahead and call them

So here I go tapping 911 …

Me: Hi
Officer: Hi, please state your emergency

Me: it looks like my car is stolen , I had parked in my parking lot and it is gone today morning
Officer: Can you please give the license plate number and the location

Me: It is XCP …. And location
Officer: your car was towed yesterday night at 12:30 as it was parked on someone else parking lot. Please contact the tow vendor at (address& phone number) to get your car.

Me: let me write it down and thanks for the info

I went back to house with D, and sat on sofa thinking ‘Did I park there ???’ Then called up the towing company and they said I have to pay 75 $s to get my car back. This is towing and handling charge …. So I bought my car again from the towing company for 75 $s…. I remember the incident where my mom bought me from a police man when he caught me for driving a scooter without a license ….That day I still remember the conversation with my mom and the police man.

Policeman: You shouldn’t allow your kid to drive the scooter at such young age
Mom: how much

Police man: 500
Mom: OK, I will make sure he doesn’t drive out again ….

And she came back home saying … Look what I bought today for 500 ….. Me.....

:)