Saturday, April 21, 2007

DWI

Slugged a couple of frozen margaritas in a jiffy at a happy hour with colleagues yesterday at NXNW. As I am not a big fan of, or a frequent consumer of alcoholic beverages, I felt tipsy and ended up staying late, out of respect for 0.08. While driving home, I remembered this funny incident* in New Orleans while I was in school.

My friends Sanjay and Lionel (from France) borrowed Sas' Mazda RX 7, had some serious fun in downtown, and were returning home at 1 AM. Just a block away from where we lived, Sanjay jumped a stop sign and was caught by the cops. Lionel, for being a very creative guy (so is Sanjay), got a brilliant idea! He suggested Sanjay to pretend that he couldn't speak English. Lionel reasoned that the cops, on remaining incommunicado for a while, would get frustrated and let them go with a mere warning. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

The cops asked them to get out of the car and got suspicious they were drunk (probably, it wouldn't have taken a genius to figure that out!). They asked Sanjay to take a breathalyzer test. Lionel started speaking in French and Sanjay refused to take the test (don't pick battles that you can't win!). The cops promptly put them in jail for DWI. As it happened over a weekend, they were scheduled to wait in Jail until Monday for judgement.

We got this news at 3 AM on a Saturday and we went to bail Sanjay out. I vividly remember driving through a ghetto (didn't bother me as I was also living in one) to find a bail bondsman. I don't remember all the details but we finally managed to reach the police station for Sanjay's release. Since I was going to sign the papers, the cops asked what my name was. I started spelling my last name "DWI..." and they started laughing hysterically. I didn't get the joke immediately as I didn't know what DWI meant at that time. It was a funny incident.

Soon after his release, we changed Sanjay's name to "Sanju daada". This name is misleading as Sanjay is a creative genius and is an excellent artist (it is unlikely for talented people to end up in jails - but hey, even O. Henry spent time in jail!). The last time I heard, the free spirits Sanjay (in US) and Lionel (in France) have become very successful in their careers after finishing their degrees in business administration.

*As this happened a long time ago, need to check with Sas on details. The arrest incident is second hand information.

1 comment:

Sas said...

another hilarious moment to that incident - Sanjay putting his arm on the cops shoulder and saying " Whats the problem, officer?"