Dedication: This work is lovingly dedicated to my Late Grandmother Mrs. Mary C Raphael. The legacy that she has left back in my life through her compassionate and gentle yet firm personality will continue to inspire me in my life.
A female voice over the radio was chattering constantly about how responsible citizens can bring down the accident rates in the country.The voice informed that honest citizens must be responsible enough to inform police about dangerous driving and accidents noticed. Bored of the monologue Ajay switched to the disk player. An AR Rahman track flowed through the fresh smelling interiors of his newly bought sedan. .Owning a car of his own has been his dream for a long time now. His job as a business analysts at a leading software firm paved a smooth way for this dream of his. He was visiting his parents in the next town to show his latest achievement. "Damn these toll plazas", Ajay cursed as he noticed a toll plaza ahead. He turned down the volume of his Bose speakers. The music swerved into a low hum.On a happy day like this he didn't want to pull off a tuff with the highway police for 'blaring music'. As he crossed the plaza he turned up the volume, lit a cigarette and eased back in the driver seat, his foot pressing down the accelerator pedals steadfastedly.
In a moments' time, he was comfortably in the fast lane pacing forward at 80kmph. As his attention juggled between the busy road and the climbing speedometer his eyes warned him of a black SUV that he was fast approaching due to meager relative velocities between them. Just as he closed in on the SUV, he honked continuously to alert the driver about his speedy approach. The SUV seemed not to care a bit. It continued to tread at an irritatingly slow speed. " Doesn't this idiot know the use of a fast lane?",Ajay babbled to himself. After draining his patience on the horns, he decided to do the unwilling. In a swift motion, he cut lanes and attempted to overtake the SUV from the leftside.While he was overtaking, he glanced at the windshield to catch a glimpse of the driver. To his annoyance he noticed a bearded man in glowing white shirt busy chit-chatting over the phone. His irritation at the careless attitude of the driver reflected as an arrogant push at the accelerator pedal.
Couple of minutes later he could hear the continuous blaring of a distinct horn, fast approaching him. The back view and side view mirror confirmed a diverging field of cars which were trying to give way to some speeding vehicle in hurry. He expected the vehicle to pass through his right on the fast lanes but quite to his amusement the vehicle was randomly cutting lanes and hence scattering car's all around. Within moments, the loud horn defeaned his ear drums as the same black SUV he had overtaken fired past him through his leftside.Before his mind could scrutinize further, he witnessed the SUV bump out a maruthi from the central lane.The sudden impact disoriented the maruthi altogether. It shot forward momentarily due to the sudden momentum change, and almost instantaneously began submitting itself to the drivers' frenzied braking. Straining notes of the screeches originated from the point of distress of tires and road. Asif displeased with the sudden action of the driver, the car skided away towards the divider bunk. The impact was so drastic that the drivers door came off flying while the car inverted itself over to the other side of the busy highway.
Ajay jammed the brakes in a completely involuntary action, his sedan reacting by skiding couple of yards and halting with smoking tires barely a yard away from the inverted car. A state of shock and numbness engulfed him for a few seconds before he heard loud shouts and unrecognizable bellows of locals who were gathering around the scene. He noticed the locals pulling out blood stained unconscious victims. On partially overcoming his sedated feeling,he collected himself and stepped out of the car. Though his head was beaming a bit, he realized that the accident has not claimed anything from him.While his eyes wandered around the situation he noticed the familiar black SUV, its brake lights gleaming red,idling a few yards head of the scene. Before Ajay could focus on the identity of the driver the SUV roared and fled.
In a flash of a moment Ajay deduced the reasoning behind the drivers' actions and the gravity of the situation. He knew he had to act fast lest the miscreant escape. He hurried back into his car and charged back onto the highway. As he drifted speedily past a sea of vehicles he could recognize the fleeting SUV far ahead of him.
His hopes of quickly catching up with the SUV quivered when he noticed an incoming signaled junction. Asif premeditated, the signal let a bunch of cars including the SUV pass through and with no mercy turn to stop right ahead of him. Sparing no time to think, Ajay thrust his accelerator fiercely shooting his sedan right into the junction island. The unexpected action sent waves of chaos that immobilized vehicles crossing over. He barely missed a heavy duty truck as he sped onto a new piece of the highway. He knew very well that alerting the SUV driver about the chase would spoil his motives. He has read in some book that 'surprise' was the most effective strategy in a war. With the given pace of events, he'd close in on the SUV pretty quickly. Then comes the most difficult part- of getting the SUV to finally stop so that he can catch the miscreant red handed. As he racked his brain cells for an effective plan, he suddenly noticed his company's employee identity card lying on his dashboard. In a flash of a moment, Ajay knew what he had to do.
He quickly invaded through the right of SUV asif to overtake it. Once parallel to the driver he lowered his windows and flashing his identity card, shouted "police! police!. Stop your car immediately". The SUV driver shocked on the sudden ambush by a 'cop', tried to flee by accelerating further. Ajay reacted by pulling right ahead of the SUV and blocking it in an attempt to slow it down. Within seconds the SUV accepted defeat and came to a sudden halt. As a precautionary action, Ajay positioned his car across the SUV.
His rage and adrenaline carried him out of his car faster than Ajay could imagine. He banged on the shining bonnet of the SUV calling names and demanding the driver to come out. Slowly, with absorbing dramatics, the bearded man in a white khadi shirt and mundu* climbed out. He adjusted his mundu, glanced at the phone in his hand and calmly walked towards Ajay. "What's the matter officer?", questioned the man in an authoritative tone. " I witnessed what your did with your reckless driving to the maruthi car. The moment you noticed the causalities, you tried to flee. Did you think that you could easily evade this responsibility? I am going to inform local police right away." replied Ajay smearing some courage in his tone."Wait a minute. So you are not a....what is your name and rank officer"? the man retorted with a sarcastic emphasis on 'officer'. Ajay felt a pang of terror run down his spine. The domination that he enjoys in the current situation is pivoted around the pretension that he is a cop. The moment this act fails, he'd have to shelve his idea of bringing this man to the book. " That's none of your business Mr.", fenced Ajay. In an attempt to dodge further queries Ajay brisked towards the front of the SUV. He located the number plate and dialed the highway police number.
Before the call could be collected, the dial tone that flooded his left ear was deafened by the sound of an approaching siren. A white Kerala police jeep pulled up from behind the SUV and came to a quick halt. A rough looking patrol officer in his Khaki uniform stepped out and promptly strode towards him. "You are under arrest for rash driving. Hand over your car keys to the constable and get into the jeep immediately", thundered the officer dispassionately to Ajay. " But Sir...This man here..." Ajay tried to explain. " Officer! this man almost killed me with is rash driving. Then he pretends to be a police officer and abuses me for some accident on the highway that he himself committed. Arrest him immediately!" mercilessly interrupted the bearded man. The officer, hearing an unexpected vocal, quickly turned around to face its origin. On recognizing the person and probably the bureaucratic magnitude of him, in a swift movement, collected himself into a stiff salute. " Sir, I'l do the necessary immediately. Sorry to cause inconvenience Sir", officer added in a servile tone. He walked towards Ajay who, affected by the turn of events hanged a despondent look on his face.He tried his best to provide his explanations but his efforts rebounded hard ears." Given the smartness you have exhibited, I am booking you additionally with IPC 419 for impersonation as a police officer and IPC 186 for obstructing a public servant and that too a state MLA". He then walked back to the MLA and murmured something in a low hum. Both of them smiled and shook hands and the officer walked back. As the brackets of smile of the officer withered away to reinstate a cold cruel face, Ajay felt a quick shiver run though his body. He stood there breathing heavily, engulfed by a state of shock and dreadful anxiety about the day ahead.
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