This week, Monday morning was a little more eventful than I had anticipated. It was all going so well, we'd had a relaxing weekend and I'd enjoyed a successful run on the treadmill and was feeling ready for the working week ahead.
Unfortunately, we had a mishap whilst queuing at the traffic lights on my journey to the office. Sagar and I were having a peaceful chat when there was a loud bang on the roof of the car. Unaware of the cause, we then saw that the windscreen was covered in cracks (we were lucky it hadn't shattered) and were realised that we were the victim of a tearaway coconut! Our suspicions were confirmed when the driver of the car behind us got out and nabbed the coconut. We didn't even get to keep it for our trouble.
We completed the journey to work and Sagar took the car down to the local garage. Another positive aspect of living in India is that a new windscreen and getting this fitted costs a grand total of £55, or less if your insurance covers it. So it was a bit annoying, but could have been much worse.
Apparently, it's quite rare for coconuts to drop from trees onto things / people so we were unlucky in that respect, but also very fortunate that it hit the roof a few inches behind the windscreen rather than smashing through the windscreen itself. We now have a shiny new windscreen and a dent in the roof which will stay there for a while. Our car now blends in with the other dented cars in Mumbai at least.
Sagar was keen to fix the dent through home-spun methods (trying to bash it out from the inside of the car...) but this doesn't seem to have worked so far. We'll keep the dent for the moment as a reminder of our close call with a coconut.
Post-accident with dent and cracks. The red cloth on the dashboard is Sagar's lucky Ganesh
Sagar on the case
Dent remaining after the new windscreen had been fitted. The 46 is the number for Sagar's favourite motorbike driver - Valentino Rossi
Cracked windscreen
Back to normal (almost)
It was Sagar's birthday this week too, although there was some confusion regarding the exact date (22nd or 24th), a very common problem in India as birth dates on official documents are often incorrect. Sagar's driving licence says the 22nd, but he knew that he was born on a Friday, so by tracking back 22 years and consulting with his mother we worked out that he was born on the 24th after all.
We bought him a new shirt as a present which seemed to go down well as Sagar wore it for the day.
Modelling the new shirt - Sagar was happier with this than he looks!
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