Friday

A cop caught me tonight

Well this is the first time and I am so proud of my performance.

I was coming back after watching the friday night movie from the college, you know, minding my own business, driving the kickass machine that is my motorcycle, clocking well above the speed limit, breaking stop signs left right and center when this cop started flashing his lights indicating me to stop. Normally I do not really care for flashing lights but I just had to stop when the cop took out his loudspeaker and started blaring into the dead of the night. I steered to the side and stopped. He, looking like an agreeable man, came up to me with a notebook in his hands, noted my license plate number and called it out into his wireless. A lady on the other side confirmed that the bike in question belonged to a Mr. Ankit Srivastava. Now I am not one who gets flipped out easily but the thought of all those grim scenes from Shawshank Redemption sent a chill down my spine. My fears were not entirely unfounded as you will learn later. Here is the conversation that took place between me and the cop:

Cop: Please put your bike on the sidestand, sit in the driver's position and keep your hands in front of you.
Cop: Now Mr. do you know why have I stopped you ?
Me (nervously): Well I broke a Stop sign...
Cop: ...and ?
Me: (Vigorously trying to figure out what more did I do wrong) I am not sure...
Cop: Please put some more effort
Me: (in one breath) and overspeeding
Cop: Thankyou... now do you know that you were way above the speed limit and I had to press my gas upto 100 just to catch you ?
Me: (Thinking : can you please stop lying ? I wasn't above 50) I am sorry
Cop: I also drive bikes and I know how easy it is to reach 60 mph. How fast can you go from 0-60?
Me: (Is it a trick question? Anyways...) 4-5 seconds (conservatively).
Cop: Can I see your license ?
I hand him my car license afraid that since I just have a temporary motorcycle license, the cop would know that I am not allowed to drive in nights and I might have to spend my night in a maximum security prison festooned with smelly, bulky criminals. I congratulated myself for this brilliant plan.
Cop: Can I see your registration ?
Me: I don't have it with me.
Cop: Hmmm... Can I see your insurance ?
Me: I have the temporary one but not the permanent. Its at my home.
Cop: Hmmm... So lets summarize here:
1. You were overspeeding
2. You broke a stop sign
3. You do not have your registration
4. You do not have your permanent proof of insurance
I can easily hit you up for something upwards of 500$ but it won't teach you anything will it ?
Me: (thinking: is this a trick question. If I say yes then you would slap the fine and if I say no, you will hit me with something harder. So I did something that any intelligent doctoral student would have done: kept mum).
Cop: Now I am going to run this license of yours and if I find no violations I would perhaps let you go but if I find any previous violations, I would fine you.
Me: OK (at this point I was really happy since I knew that I did not have any previous violations. The cop goes back to his car and I am almost ready to put the keys back to my ignition so that the ordeal could finally end. The cop comes back looking grim.)
Cop: We have a slight problem here Mr. I hope you know that for driving a motorcycle in California, you need to have a motorcycle license.
Me: (Shit!!!) But I do have it. ( I take it out and hand it over)
(He looks at me increduluously and says the next time a cop catches you on a motorcycle SHOW HIM THE MOTORCYCLE LICENSE !!! )
Cop: This is a temporary driving license. Are you allowed to drive at nights ?
Me: No... but... ahem... I was working late in the lab and it got dark... and... well... its once in a full moon situation.
Cop:
5. Not allowed to drive at night.
Me: (Quiet)
Cop: I am what you call a good cop so I will let you go with a warning. Next time you are caught with so many violations, you will atleast get a ticket for about 800 and your bike will be towed away and your license will come under jeopardy.
Me: (Not able to believe my ears. What did he say ? He will let me go ! After I have had 5 violations, 3 of which pretty grim !!!) Thank you so much officer.

So that was it. My first pullover by a cop and it was nothing less than a miracle that I came unhurt.

11 comments:

Devendra Kumar said...

CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!!!!
So u finally became a DUDE who got busted at night for 5 charges of violation but still came out scot free.....
Amazing DUDE !!!!!!!!!!!!

Ankit said...

ha ha ha... I can probably laugh at it now but I was shit scared then boss. I was the Dude who reflects upon his indiscretion when he starts getting chased by a dog :)

Nikhil said...

you too dont tell the complete story...where is the line when he asks you about you weekly engagements, and promises you to call you a day later for some chit chat...huh?

Nitin Gupta said...

was he the same guy you were hugging this morning in that park?

Amit said...

Ha Ha. Great going Mr. Ankit Srivastava! I hope you would be proud of yourself, I know I am!

kowsik said...

There's reality, then there's the Blogger's Truth, and so on...

TheExperimentalMom said...

Your lucky night!:)

Anurup K.T said...

Now do I smell a scandalous Before and After story here ?

I must admit the comments on your blog were this time spicier than the blog in itself ;), dangerous Liaisons I say.

And now...the truth please ?? And rest assured the audience here is certainly liberal in thought :).

Doodler said...

ha ha ha..
:D
Congrats Ankit!!lucky escape..esp being in US : )

Ankit said...

@Nikux: Surprisingly, he did ask if I can find time on weekdays or weekends!!! When I said weekends, he did not say anything !!! THAT WAS THE END... NO CALLS AFTER THAT AND I AM HAPPY FOR IT

@Phantom: No that was someone else :)

@Kilas: Obviously... not many can boast of such an escape :) I know people have got tickets for continuing ahead from a right only lane... so pretty darn proud

@Gunti: haan beta mauka mila hai maar lo meri :)

@Sparsh: It sure was... Something tells me I wont be this lucky anytime in the future as he noted my bike's specifics !

@Anurup: I am pretty sure that you are liberal enough to gloss over a scandalous, licentious and homoerotic story... that is... if there had been one... till then, you can save your tolerance and approval for something more concrete :)

@Saras: I can't believe how close I was to being dumped behind the bars... so I really appreciate all the luck that went into that escape :)

Anonymous said...

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