Adventures of a Firang Squirrel In India: In an Instant

Adventures of a Firang Squirrel In India

how do ya like them apples?

Monday, May 05, 2008

In an Instant

I feel a bit like my weekend was pulled from movie that Quentin Tarantino would direct.

Friday night I went to see Crowded House. I should tell you that I am obsessed with Neil Finn, and have loved their music since High School. And they really do just keep getting better and better. Anyway, the show was a high point since my return back to the US. I finally felt at home, I finally felt connected. It was amazing (as always) and one or two of the songs moved me to tears.

That is where the joy ended.

After the show I took the metro to Pentagon City with some friends. I turned down a ride home, and my husband was supposed to be on his way to come pick me up. Well, apparently the poor guy, who has only been in the US for a couple months and has only driven this route like twice before, got distracted by my dad chattering at him in the car and missed the exit. He and my dad ended up driving all over Northern Virginia and DC while I stood on a rather sketchy stretch of mostly deserted road shouting at them over the phone.

Eventually they got to me at about 1 AM and all's well that ends well.

Well.
Until the next night.

Saturday night we all went out to eat, and I was driving my parents back to their hotel. We had the baby in the car, too. I went to pull in to the hotel and I see a tour bus discharging passengers on the side of the road. So I stop and put on my directional to turn, and then start to go. Out of nowhere the bus driver guns it and goes right for us, so I slammed on my brakes. I hit the horn and he honked back, and I was really angry. He had seen us start to turn and he had actually been stopped.

So I drop my parents off, and I pulled along side the bus where the driver was standing. I said to him "Hey, you almost hit us back there and I have an infant in the car."

I had barely finished my sentence when he started ranting at me, using foul language and screaming. He was so out of control that I became very frightened. He finally challenged me to call the police, so I did. While I went in front of the hotel to wait for the police to come, this man continued to scream and yell at me, and he actually threatened to assault me on numerous occasions as various onlookers were telling him to stop it. It was insanity. I could not believe this HUGE man (he had to be 350 lbs and over 6 feet tall) was threatening me like that... a 5 foot tall woman with an infant. I was barely even speaking to him. He was just going off. He even told me that he did not care if he went to jail.

When the police came they took a statement, and I did not pursue pressing charges because really all I wanted was him to know that he could have caused a fatal accident, and also for him to realize that his reaction was not even close to normal. Who behaves like that? Who causes that kind of scene? Later that evening both my husband and I were extremely shaken up as we realized that he was probably a whole lot more unstable than we ever counted on, and we were very lucky that nothing happened to either one of us.

That thought really hit home this morning. As I was getting ready for work, I heard on the news that someone had been murdered near my office. Washington D.C. has more than its share of violent crime, but the area where I work is considered safe. Anyway, as I was walking to work, I started noticing brown droplets on the pavement that got bigger and bigger. I almost became sick when I saw the discarded police tape and realized that it was the blood of the 24 year old man that was stabbed to death at the ATM just a few hours earlier. It was scattered all up the entire block, and I guess no one had come yet to clean it.

It makes you realize just how tenuous our hold on life really is. One bad decision, one split second and your life is reduced to splashes of blood on a city sidewalk.

posted by small squirrel @ 12:18 PM

5 Comments:

At 2:13 AM, Aqua said…

chilling post. i wish that loony driver had been arrested instead. but it's a big thing the the police actually came and took a statement. that hopefully will deter such incidents in the future.

have y heard from those ad guys? we're waaaiting to see lil anju on our tv screens.
At 9:59 AM, Vivek Kondur said…

Roller coaster ride day 4 u.

I thot only KSRTC (Red Bull) drivers r rude & harsh @ times. U shld have pressed charges, that wld have been good lesson for him.

Time as an entity defines and determines most of the events around us.

On a lighter note, I thot u wld return to be a Small Squirrel rather than a Firang Squirrel :P.

Keep the posts coming.
At 12:47 PM, sandra said…

I enjoy reading your blog,you are so funny.. began reading it as you were leaving India. I just started living in India and I used to live in baltimore...its kind of weird because I felt at the beginning india was more violent or dangerous...but Baltimore/dc is way worse. People are really crazy and have access to guns. You are very lucky.
ps. battling cockroaches right now.
At 7:51 PM, small squirrel said…

aqua... hey babe! nah I am still waiting too. I got the pics in small size from the photog, but never was able to hear anything from Himalaya about the ads themselves. :(

vivek... not sure pressing charges would have done much. my word against his kind of thing. still a firang squirrel!

sandra... thanks! I enjoy reading yours too but was horrified by what happened to you in Goa. My God! I do hope your time in India is much better than it seems to have been. It's a wonderful place. And yes, DC is much less safe than any major city in India. Sorry about the roaches. Ick!
At 2:10 AM, Pallavi said…

sigh.. good to know you are safe