A BUMPER INCIDENT

 

Well, this may not be entirely matching with the theme and purpose of this blog page, however, I thought it pertinent to report and have in writing a copy of the incidents which occurred today. To start off let me admit that I am a relatively new driver and obtained my DL only last month, but I did join a driving school and learnt the nuances of driving in busy road conditions through practice and patience, and many people including myself believe that I am a safe driver who abides by all the motor laws set out by the Government.

Today was just another torpid Tuesday until I decided to take my car along with a friend to get my Casio watch repaired. On our way back we stopped for a quick bite and proceeded towards our apartment which is around 7.2 KM from the service centre. I was driving and since it was a 2 lane road I was on the left lane and a Maruti Suzuki 800 was on my right. In front of me, there was a two-wheeler, in which the pillion was carrying an iron ladder and hence was protruding outside the boundary limit of the vehicle. In a fraction of a second, he applied his brakes as a result of which I came to a sudden halt and thanks to the ABS facility, the car came to a stop. But unfortunately, the Maruti Suzuki driver collided his vehicle's left to the right bumper of my car. Well, I must appreciate the other party for recognizing that it was not a fault on a particular individual and hence, we did not argue but through a simple conversation assessed the damage to each other and thereon agreed to bear the expenses for each other's damage. His mechanic estimated the cost to be around Rs. 2000 for replacement of the left headlamp and my mechanic estimated the repair costs at nearly Rs. 7500.

The other party did not have any insurance coverage for their vehicle, which by itself does not make them eligible for driving the car on public roads and therefore, does not impose any sort of obligation on my end to cover the expenses. However, I understood the opposite party's situation and agreed to pay for their repair. However, once it was brought to my knowledge that my repair costs would be significantly higher than the other party's cost and the other party at the moment had agreed that they would incur the cost for repairing my vehicle and also considering the situation of the party (they could not afford to incur the high expense for repairing my car) I suggested with the greatest and most honest humility that, "Sir, I understand your situation and do not want you to incur this much cost and hence I will pay for the damage that has occurred to me (amounting to Rs. 7500) and you can take care of the repair costs for your vehicle (amounting to Rs. 2000)."

I do not understand what agitated the other party, but upon hearing this they started calling me selfish, ignorant, lacking basic human values, no integrity, dignity etc and a lot of words which felt like a direct character assassination to the values which I have imbibed throughout my life. To the best of my knowledge, I feel I was doing the best I could to protect his interest and act in the most humane way possible. I feel that I have acted by preserving all the values which I have learnt throughout my life and came to a solution that is quite beneficial for the both of us, for the opposite party it is beneficial as it reduces the net cost he is spending and for me, personal satisfaction of doing something which I feel is right.

Still, the other party thinks that I should pay for them and this is where I feel that I must draw a line between humility and expectation, between need and greed, between help and entitlement and so on. They were not ready to listen to what I have to say and abruptly ended the call by saying that if you are human enough and have good in you, you will pay.

Now, I know my value and my beliefs and I believe that I must not pay for this as I have done the maximum I could, because at the end of the day I am incurring Rs. 7500 and the other party is incurring Rs. 2000, which is a deficit of Rs. 5500 in comparison. Still, I would wish to know the standing of you readers, if you were in a similar situation, what would you do? What do you think about the solution I offered to this other party?

Hope I have not bored you with this blog, but if you made it till the end and answered the above, thank you for reading and cheers!!!

PS: Most of the conversation was in Tamil and I have given the best possible conversion of it to English. 

 

Please note: This blog does not derogate any person mentioned in the blog or outside it. The photo is only representative in nature and credit lies with the owner of the photo which was posted on Google.