Dude, Where's My Car?

If you're going through a relatively peaceful spell in life, then you can be pretty much be rest assured that some massive headache-inducing problem is about to come your way. Well that's what life has taught me over the years anyway. 

My father, bless his heart, had this habit of making extremely poor and strange financial decisions. After his death, I've often struggled to make heads or tails of what exactly he was thinking at the time. He never used to tell me these things either, whether it was because of a sense of pride for him or whether he thought I was too young to start talking finances, I'm not sure. Either way, it made my job harder over the years with some unwanted surprises. 

Unexpected Visitors

It was on a quiet December evening in Trivandrum as I was preparing to make the usual 35 km trip to the Taluk Hospital I was employed in at the time. I wasn't expecting any visitors because literally no one visited that year (partly because of Covid, partly because it's kind of always been like that for my family). 

To my surprise, 2 people from HDFC Bank showed up at my house. They were looking for the whereabouts of a Toyota Innova which was apparently in the name of my father. 

You see, my father allowed the higher ups at his job to buy cars in his name so that they could avoid tax problems or something. Now this is clearly an extremely bad idea from my father's point of view but he was very trusting of the people he used to work for. 

I had honestly never seen this car myself. Apparently the higher up who was actually using the car and paying EMI till then had run into some financial problem. EMI wasn't paid for months and the higher up couldn't be found or contacted. Wonderful. 

An Offer You Can Only Refuse

The bank officials offer was this - pay off the rest of the EMI (which would come around some 16 lakhs!), make the car my own and sell it at a profit later. Only problem being that neither of us had any idea where the car was. 

They suggested that once I pay off the EMI, I should register a case to find out where "my" car was. Essentially I'd be trading their problem for mine and paying them 16 lakhs to do it. What an idea sirji. 

Now I had more than enough headaches in my life to deal with (thanks Aunt May) to last both this lifetime as well the next so I had 0 interest in putting myself in the middle of this shit. But that didn't stop these guys though. 

It was scary enough that they tracked me down in my new place (few people knew I was there and it wasn't on any ID by that point). But then the stalking really started. 

One day their supervisor came along with them and they started asking my neighbours where I was hiding the car.

"We know he's hiding it somewhere here, don't help him by lying!" said the supervisor lady. 

Now this pissed me off like anything. The only car in my name was my mother's Alto which was broken for ages and at my uncle's place. My father never had enough money in life to buy a car on his own. I was doing daily commute to work and back (if they'd bothered asking anyone I worked with, they'd know). 

I told them to politely fuck the fuck off from my house. 

Solving a Problem

It's easier to start attacking a nobody like me than some bigshot who could be anywhere in the country. So in a way, I don't really blame the bank officials for trying (except for trying to paint me as some criminal in front of my neighbours). 

The problem was likely exacerbated by some of the staff at my father's old workplace trying to cover their asses by sending these guys on a wild goose chase towards me. It was only a matter of time before their lies got exposed though. 

After that, the bank officials became more considerate to my situation. It finally got solved by me writing a statement saying I have no interest in claiming the vehicle. 

And thus I avoided both a legal quagmire and wasting a huge sum of money. 

Well Until Next Time

In the few months before his passing, my father did tell me that he allowed his name to be used on as much as 7 different cars. I'm not sure if this is actually true or if it was just is multi-infarct dementia talking but if true, it's only a matter of time before the next call arrives. 

Considering my fortune in life, that call is definitely coming. 

Comments

  1. Anonymous15 November 2023 at 01:44

    Surely "enough headaches in my life to deal with (thanks Aunt May) to last both this lifetime as well the next"!!

    ReplyDelete

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