The Hindu : 'You have a defective number plate, sir'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 09, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

'You have a defective number plate, sir'

By Harichandan A.A.

BANGALORE May 8. Rarely will a two-wheeler owner, who has violated the law, get away without paying fine on one count or the other, legally, with a receipt, or in other ways. This is about one of those ``counts'': a number plate that had been chipped on one side, enough for one of the letters in the registration number to be missing.

At the junction in front of the Race Course, a motorcyclist was waved to one side. A Traffic Sub Inspector of Police was writing a receipt for another offender. While the motorcyclist waited, a police constable told him, "you have a defective number plate, sir.''

The motorcyclist, who decided to pay up, was, however, not sure how to avoid this experience the next time. He then decided to get a new number plate for his two-wheeler. With some knowledge of where such things might be found in the City, he went to Shivajinagar, all the while thinking that a showroom selling genuine spares might charge him heavily for the number plate, and also the left front L-type foot rest rubber he wanted.

After he made several inquiries, he was directed to a shop on Jeweller's Street. A helpful mechanic gave him the address of a signboard painter, who he claimed did a reasonably good job on number plates. Parking his motorcycle a little away, the motorcyclist walked down to the shop, where after some rummaging through the shelves, the salesman there said, "gaadi leke aau, plate ka type dekhna hai.'' So he trudged back and brought his motorcycle. Finally, the salesman triumphantly came out with a plate, confident he had the right one. As it turned out, it was a well-crafted not so "genuine" number plate with a few variations, which on the whole would have made the motorcycle look ridiculous.

The last resort was the showroom, which was not far. The showroom had a genuine spare, which surprisingly cost Rs.20 less than the one offered by the salesman. The L-type foot rest and the tip for the mechanic who replaced the number plate made the final bill Rs.124. Now the signboard painter was a poor man and his brush was frayed after long use; he could not afford a new brush, which he said cost Rs.40. But with consummate skill he used the stickiness of the paint to hold the bristles together and made each stroke quickly. He kept doing that with his only brush till the number plate was neatly painted with the registration number in a nice font that one would not find on any computer.

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