When the Troubleshooter got into Trouble!

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I vividly remember my high-school science teacher telling us - when teaching us about electricity - "Don't try to be a good samaritan if you see a wire lying on the road. It might just be live!".

I was a live and mute (dumbfounded, actually!) witness this morning to exactly this. Except that a sense of guilt and embarrassment far overshadowed my amusement.

I was easing my car into the parking slot this morning in Panaji and inadvertently rolled into a ditch that ran between the road shoulder and the footpath. I had seen it before parking but didn't realize it would create trouble; and was in fact trying to do my own bit by making sure the car wasn't obstructing traffic. The ditch was about 8 inches wide and about 4 inches deep. Even then it would still have been a non-issue except that for some weird reason the front tires that were in the ditch kept spinning and the car wouldn't budge (I realized but only later, that there was in fact a very simple explanation for this).

While there was no damage whatsoever to the car, it was perched awkwardly enough to attract attention. Nothing like a little excitement on a Monday morning - and that too for Goans - so in 30 seconds flat even though it was before 9AM on a Monday, there were at least 3-5 friendly onlookers who came to "supervise", "advise", "oversee" and "guide" the rescue operation.

After about a minute of futile rubber-burning, a onlooker about 20 feet away who had been thoughtfully watching this until now stepped forward because he saw something I hadn't and gave me some meaningful advice. And stood bang in front of the car to make sure I did it right. All I had to do was turn the tires a bit to help the tire get better traction on the edge of the road so the car would move without the tires spinning.

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I took his advice.

I turned the steering.

And hit the accelerator.

It would been a brilliant idea. If only I had turned the steering a little more.

The net - or rather, wet - result was that the onlooker got splattered with fresh mud! On his white shirt and black trousers! On a Monday morning!

As I rushed out of the car to apologize, the poor Samaritan gave me a weak I-know-it-was-not-your-fault-but-dude-wtf smile and walked away shaking his head in disbelief.

Mr. Good Samaritan, my apologies. Thank you for your help this morning and may God bless you. I hope you had a good day after this and have a wonderful week ahead!

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