Busted!

It was Thursday and I was driving my dad's car to work, 100 km from my home in Jeddah. In the weekdays, I always take the company van but on some Thursdays I take either my own or my dad's car. The motive behind it was that I could bunk the last few hours and would not have to wait for the van (i know "bunk" does not go here, but u get the point). For the sake of the story, it is very necessary for you to know that I own a white 1990 Toyota Cressida and my dad own's a golden 2006 Honda Accord.

My dad had expressed his resentment when I asked to take his or for that matter, even my car. He said its a useless risk to take your car when the company van is available. I took his car anyway.

It was all going very smooth, the first checkpoint had passed. I was driving at a modest speed .... ok...i might have touched 130 kph while overtaking. I've gotto tell u its hard to resist overspeeding in this car. Anyway, i slowly approached the 2nd checkpoint, when i noticed the On Duty Shurta (Arabic for Cop) draw his attention towards me. I must have overspeeded and the radar must have caught it. He signalled me to stop .... and he went:

Shurta: "rukhsa wa istamara" license and vehicle registartion

Me: "na'm indi" yes, i have it

I took out my license and handed it to him... when he told me to park my car aside , as I was blocking the cars behind me, and bring the rest i.e. vehicle ownership and registration docs.

Thats when it occurred to me... I had forgotten to switch my Istamara!! I was carrying papers (actually two cards) of my own car ... what to do now ... what to do .... Now my main concern was not over-speeding but inavailabilty of mandatory documents - which is an even bigger crime ...... I had no other choice, I got out of my car and gave him the papers.. and this is what happenend:

Shurta: "kam mashi" how fast were you

Me: "mia o ashreen" 120

Shurta: "la mia o khamseen" no 150

Me: "la ya rajil, wallah al azeem ana mashi be mia o ashreen" no man, swear to god i was driving at 120 (swearing on god is common here so i tried to convince him his way)

All this time his eyes were on the istamara or on my car.... needless to mention all the details on the paper were for my old but hefty Cressida and a brand new Honda was staring at him. Even the colors didnt match. And I was like .. Oh God just keep doing whatever u r doing....

After almost a minute of silence during which he was still looking at the papers....

Shurta: "yallah roh" ok u can go

Me: "Allah yateek al afia" God bless you (like a thanks... only better)

Me: "Tujh say bara jahil nahe dekha main nay" well .. i didnt say it out loud

I came to know later that I was saved from some really deep deep shit!

Moral: Obey your parents