Anna on Speed

Our merry-go-round continued with taking Anna back to hospital to review his stitches, on 4th Mar.  As we drove to the hospital in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the conversation in the car went something like this:

Anna: There is a sign on the road that says the speed limit is 30 miles / hour.

Me: 30 kilometers per hour, Anna.  You are in India.

Anna: 30 kilometers per hour

Long Pause

Anna: Useless sign. Traffic can't move more than 5 kms/hour!

We laugh. Anna's head injury has definitely not affected his powers of observation!

Long Pause

Anna: That reminds me of a story.  You can put it on your ........

Pause

Me: Blog, Anna

Pause.  Obviously the word "blog" does not register with him.

Anna: My first car was a secondhand Studebaker.  Within 10 days of buying the car, I was driving down the Cochin-Madras road.  Near Alwyae, in Kerala, I was stopped by a traffic cop.  He told me that I was driving 35 kms/hour in a 30 km/hour zone and that he would have to challan me. We argued for some time on the speed.  I kept insisting that the car's speed was not over 30 kms/hour.

Finally tired by the arguing, I held out my keys to the cop and told him, "Here, take the keys.  I have been trying to get this car to move faster than 30 kms/hour since the day I bought it.  If you can get it to move faster than 30 kms/hour, you can keep the car!"

It seems the cop laughed and let Anna go.

I didn't even know that there was a car called Studebaker much less that Anna's first car was a second-hand blue Studebaker.

But more interesting is how a traffic speed limit sign, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, can trigger a memory and a story, that is nearly 55 years old!