We left Indian guest house at 6:30am, and by 7am we had been stopped by two police offers stood at the side of the road on the flyover up to North Mumbai. They pulled us over and told us that rickshaws weren't allowed on the flyover, and asked for Ash's license, along with the vehicle paperwork. Just after telling them we hadn't realised the no-go zone, one of the officers started telling us that our vehicle was older than 15 years (1997) and so was no longer registered to be in existence, and was going to be scrapped. I think my face must've just dropped at this point, and Ash explained that this couldn't be the case and that everything was legit. We decided that calling Princely from the company we bought if from would be our best bet, and waited anxiously for him to pick up at such an early time. Thankfully, he did!
After the phone call, the officer found the registration doc that Princely had described, so now we were just left with the problem of driving where we weren't allowed. For this, they wanted 5,000 rupees (£50 - EXTORTIONATE, most people we met who've bribed police had been told to give 500 and then brought it down) and Ashs signature to accept a court hearing. I repeated "5,000?!" in an are-you-fucking-mental tone, and he quickly reduced it to 3,000. We told him we didn't have that money, and then Ash suddenly started talking this amazing bullshit about us being sponsored to drive around the india in this rickshaw, and so we don't actually have any money of our own, it's all donations. The officer replied asking us how we got money for food etc if this was the case, and Ash told him we got sent money from time to time but weren't able to get anything from the cashpoint. Eventually he asked how much we could pay, and suggested 1000. I knew that I had about 8000 in my bag because I'd just been to an ATM but thankfully Ash was carrying way less... 340 rupees to be precise. We weren't sure how much he actually had, so when he pulled out his wallet and opened it he just started laughing, and showed the officer and said how that confirmed our story.
As for the court hearing, Ash subtly dropped in that his Dad is a lawyer (news to me) and so he will know how this process works and won't have to go. Combine that with an explanation about how we have this massive online following and we post about everyday occurrences online, and he'd soon changed his tune about the court.
I was thinking PHEW, but then realised the officer still had Ashs license. We asked him for it back, and the guy was hesitant before answering "okay, for one thing". Obviously we're thinking "aaah crap, what now?", and then he says...
Drumroll please... Because it's absolutely ridiculous ...
"Just one photo with you"
Smile and wave boys!
BAAAAHAHAHAHAHA unbelievable! From having our rickshaw taken from us, paying 5000 and an appearance in court, to one happy chappy photo. Before he gave Ash his license back he looked at his date of birth and said that he wanted to party with us at his birthday, haha! He then went even further and wrote down his name and number in case any other officers stopped us further along the way!
India. You certainly are incredible.
A note from the officer, to give to any other police staff that might stop us