A few acci(inci)dents!!!!

I want to tell about a few interesting inci(acci)dents which happened during my stay in Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman.

I went during June 2002. It was the hottest time. Temperature was 45 Deg C at 8.30 pm!  I was about 74 kgs heavy when I went to Muscat. I had lost 4 kgs. Between receipt of my appointment letter and VISA  thinking and thinking that ‘Oh God! I won’t be able to see my family for one full year’. I had even ‘warned’ my mother ‘don’t you dare to fall sick in between. I can’t come’! She had just smiled.

I had no driving license, I mean the International one. So, I had to depend on the Taxi. That too the point to point Taxi. Mine being a private firm, was very strict about spend on the travel. I could take a taxi from one point to another in the main road. I was not supposed to hire a taxi for myself to get dropped in the doorstep. The heat, the loneliness and the excessive walking made me get melted like butter. It was almost like a frozen butter put in the hot sun!

Sometimes my colleagues who had the car used to pick me up, but that was rare.

I had a mental block to even learn car driving. Can you believe it? Someone told me ‘beware, while you drive a car!’ That’s it. I was not able to take up the driving classes. But it was inevitable to drive if I have to survive in Muscat, especially being a sales person.

So the torture commenced.  I went on failing and failing.

There was this drum test. I had to reverse the car inside a set of drums without touching the drums. Then the slope test. Balance between the clutch and the brakes and when the light turns green I was supposed to drive to the front without slipping back on the slope. The third toughest road test. There were about 5 or 6 test arenas. I was trained in all those places. Finally after 9 attempts, I could pass out the test! I got an international license.

I was not given a car for about three months. The reason is, if I meet up with an accident, my license would be confiscated. So, after 3 months, when m y colleague went out of station, I got a Mazda 323.

The very first day I was reversing the car and hit the next car, a Land Cruiser! The Royal Omani Police (ROP) came and took away my licence and asked me to go the police station to collect the same. It was the most boring morning. I decided not to commit any mistake on the road again.

Another time I was going very fast and I forgot the handbrakes while on the down gradient road. The car jumped up, crossed a few boulders and hit a compound. Some Indians came out of the villa and asked me to sit in the car, apply reverse gear. They literally lifted the car and put it back on the road.

Another time I was reversing and trying to adjust the seat. I was saved by the wooden plank which stopped me. Otherwise there was a 6 meter deep gorge dug for a new building!

Another time the right side mirror was damaged for being close to a gate of an office.

When I was turning to the right on to the main road, the Volvo bus driver switched on the lights. In that country if someone dips and dims the light, it means he is giving us permission to proceed (the same is reverse in India!)

It was getting dark and the bus guy had switched on the light and I misread him! He came so close to my car that the backside of the bus hit my left mirror on the same side where I was sitting to drive. (left hand drive cars and driving on the right side of the road)

The breaking of the mirror made a horrible noise and the driver stopped the bus and shouted at me. I looked at him. A Pakistani! Ah, another ex-pat! I had no fear now. I put my car’s hazard light and walked to him and told ‘I thought you gave me the way’. He was also trembling. He called me a mad man. I had no care for his words.

Well, I had (and got) hit in the front, back, sides of the car. Then I was very careful!!!!!