Match Point

I believe in the law of averages - you have to -. Life is full of nice little surprises that almost make you feel guilty. But then, life can also be so incredibly unfair that the only thing you have left is a belief that something's eventually gonna go your way. *Hope* is the ultimate equalizer.

I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing both the feelings - all in a day's work.

On my longish 35 mile drive to work everyday, I have seen countless number of people being pulled over for speeding on one particular section of the freeway. One day it would be my time too, I always thought. The empty road on a routine bright'n'sunny day (Yes, we have more than 300 of those every year) literally begs, screams for SPEED. 50 - doesn't do justice to either the road or the automobile. But this is not where the incident occured, infact, far from it.

Now, normally I am a very safe driver (other than speeding on empty roads of course) with a clean record. So, what happened was ... something of an anomaly. I was getting late for an appointment at 7 in the evening. Naturally , I was stepping on the gas, without realizing that I was going through a school-zone.

I got pulled over promptly.

It was almost like three strikes in one shot...driver with a middle-eastern look (due to my goatee), driving at 40mph in a 20mph zone & the most glaring of all...not having the current insurance papers in my car (I had very conveniently forgotten to put in an updated copy after I renewed my policy in November). "I'm in for big, this time", I thought to myself.

So the cop came around, took a long, hard look at me and asked for my drivers license. After my record checked out to be okay, he came back and spoke in a very sinister tone, "Sir, I caught you at 40 in a school zone. You should thank your stars that the school's done for the day. Else you would have been in serious trouble now. In this case, I'm going to let you off with just a warning."

I couldn't believe what I had heard. Putting on the most apologetic of faces, I regurgitated the same old cliche, the one I had practised tons of times for this very moment, "I'm extremely sorry officer. I assure you, it won't happen again." Me getting caught...I meant :P

A wise man once said 'Sometimes it's better to be lucky than to be good'. While, I've been on the bad side of that statement more than a few times, this was the first time I was on the 'good'. Atleast, I couldn't put it down to anything other than luck.