My tryst with the Mumbai police Cops

  One Friday returning from office I was cornered by the ever alert Mumbai traffic cop for breaking a signal. I was behind a bus and followed the bus turning right I failed to notice the light had turned red.


The traffic police man popped out from no-where like those advertisements popping out from the cricket ground in any match involving India on Ten Sports.  He stood in front of my car impervious of the dangers of standing in front of a 1 tonne projectile which was solely guided by a person fresh out of driving school.

Anyways I managed to bring the vehicle to a stop without either of us hitting the panic buttons. This is what followed.

I got down from the car resolutely deciding not to bow down to corruption and making up my mind to pay the fine. My idealistic wife seated to my left  egging me on like my long forgotten conscience.

The Cop : "Side mein khada karo"
I comply.
The Cop : "License dikhao"
I comply.
The Cop : " Signal toda hai fine lagega "
Me : "But main to bus ke peeche aa rahaa tha signal nahi dikha"
The Cop : "Nahin tumne signa toda aur tumko dekh ke doosre logon ne bhi toda."
Me : "Theek hai fine le lo"
The cop : "Hum log fine nahin collect kar sakte hain. License zapt hoga. Police chowky aake license lena hoga"
Me : (My resolution weakened a bit. I tried another tack). Aap chalomere saath chowky fine leke license de do.
The cop : "Sirf aap ke liye khada hun kya ?"
Me : "Theek hai fir "
The Cop : "Receipt fadu"
Me : "Theek hain"

The Cop : "Receipt fadu"
Me : "Theek hain"

The Cop : "Receipt fadu"
Me : "THEEK HAIN !"


He seemed disappointed and took my license giving me receipt which was valid for 15 days. I sill had doubts about by bravado but grinned through it and went home.

When  my friend heard of the incident he admonished me for surrendering my license to the cop. Looked at me through his worldly wise eyes, then proceeded to narrate various incidents where he had got off by paying 50 to 100 bucks. This further scared me and I muttered something about I did not want to encourage corruption trying to put on a self righteous tone.

On Monday after fretting under my newly acquired unlicensed status I proceeded to the police chowky. I reached there at 2:00 PM the cops were having  lunch and I had to wait. However the I was pleasantly surprised when after a 15 minute wait for them to end their lunch I got back my license without much fuss.  My ever practical wife ensured I took a receipt for the payment made.

All's well that ends well !!!

Hurray for a corruption free India ;)

Some useful Info
License Collection Timings : 12:00 to 5:00 PM
Fine for Breaking Signal : Rs 100
Be sure to collect your receipt.

The Team-BHP fiasco.

Before starting this blog I thought of joining Team-BHP and have two failed attempts to my credit :-). For some reason the honchos who run Team-BHP deemed my application unfit for processing.

I did email them asking for a reason but sadly they never reverted back to me.

Oh!! poor me I had to face the woes of rejection twice over. Jokes aside the site remains a gold mine of useful information for people wanting to know more about anything that runs on wheels.

The Petrol Figo Mileage Chart

Detailed below is the mileage chart of my Ford Figo.

Most of the kilometers logged is in heavy bumper to bumper traffic. The kind which takes us more than an hour to cover 15 kms. The kms for entry dated 12/23/2010 where we have got a mileage of 13.75 is where we had about 275 kms of highway driving. The first service is yet to be done.

All readings are based on calculating the petrol consumed using the auto-cutoff method.

Points to note :

1. Mileage calculations for line 8 in the chart also needs to take into account that the vehicle was in the service station for 7 days for paint job and first service.

The first drive

TheFord Figo parked near Asavari Dam (Bordi)

Model : Ford Figo 1.2 ZXI
Color : Sea Grey
Fuel  : Petrol
City  : Mumbai
Dealer : SC Ford Mumbai, Malad

Buying experience : The buying experience from SC Ford was not too great. I received a car which had a dent on the roof which they have promised to rectify during the
first service. SC Ford does not return calls and you have to keep calling them for responses and they did goof up with the documents too.

The Car : The car is being driven by both me and my wife. The two of us were drivers freshly graduated from the Driving School. As of 11/01/11 we have put in 1700 Kms in the Figo most of them within the city. We did have one trip of 150 kms one way to Bordi a beach resort, so with our limited knowledge I have stated below our collective experiences.

The Good : The Ford Figo feels sturdy and I loved the driving position and the steering grip. We have the also driven the Maruti Alto, Swift and Wagon R. (We learnt driving in the Swift and Wagon R). The boot space and rear leg room are very good and comfortable. 

I am 6' and have had people sit behind me and there were no complaints there. 

I did not face any ground clearance issues till now as reported in many places on the net. I have driven with four adults squeezed in the back seat a couple of times within the city. The in built audio system is pretty decent too.

The gear shift is smooth.

The Not so Good : The car does seem slightly underpowered especially compared to the Swift. The headlamps are not powerful enough and driving in areas with no street lamps visiblity may be an issue unless
you upgrade to more powerful lights.

Conclusion : All in all I am happy with the car. Though the service remains a concern.