Tyre Burst in Ballarat

            We had two week-long breaks during the one year course in Australia. Since we had visited Sydney during the first break in April, we decided to go to Adelaide during the second in September. I have already mentioned about my 1969 Toyota Corona. It became clear tome by September that it was not fit for long distance travel – Adelaide is approx. 750 km from Queenscliff. So I decided to hire a car. Considering my limited budget, I settled for the smallest hatchback @ 35 A $ a day from Budget Rent a Car.

            On the day of our travel, I reached the agency in Geelong at 8 in the morning and kept my Jalandhar made DL at the counter as required by law. The girl at the counter picked it up, examined it, then looked at me and asked, “Sir, What is this?” (If you remember, in those days, the handmade DLs – especially from Punjab, Haryana, U.P. and Bihar, used to look like discarded mini diaries.) So I told her as to what it was – a driving license. She then paraphrased her query, “Sir, I cannot read anything in it and the photograph also doesn’t resemble you.” So I told her that even I couldn’t read what was written on it.” (It was in Gurumukhi) She then asked me if I had a local Australian ID, which I had –an Australian Defence Force ID. She appeared to be satisfied with it as the photograph on it definitely resembled me. So she let me have the car.

While taking over the car, I noticed that the boot had a plain carpeted surface and the spare wheel, which was awkwardly visible in my Toyota, was apparently missing from it.  Due to the fear of being considered a novice, I did not clarify this nagging doubt from the dealer, put our bags in the boot, kids in the back seat and Keerti in the front, I drove off on the Ballarat Highway.   

            Since this was the first almost new car that I ever drove, I started enjoying the maximum permitted speed of 100 kmph and reached the outskirts of Ballarat – about 100 km away - in a jiffy. Since there was very little traffic at that early hour, I continued at 100 kmph and soon encountered a roundabout. The roundabout was designed for city speed limits – 60 kmph and refused to let the car stay on its road which, due to the centrifugal force generated by the curve, climbed the curb on the left. I heard a bang, my steering wavered and I applied brakes instinctively bringing the car to a halt – the two right wheels on the road and the left ones on the curb. Luckily, the kids were also secured with seat belts and child restraint and were safe. I got out of the car, did my inspection of the tyres and realized that the left front tyre had collapsed completely. This was quite strange to me as I had not heard of tubeless tyres and was not aware that they were fitted in the car that I had hired.

            You can easily imagine my state – I knew how to and could change the flat wheel but didn’t know where to find the spare wheel. On top of this, Keerti was, as usual, passing her scathing remarks on my deplorable habit of showing off and not asking someone what I didn’t know. Luckily, the children were not grown up enough to also emulate their mother.

On looking around, I discovered that I had managed to do what I did right opposite a gas station which was astride the opposite lane across the road. So I walked across, and gave intelligent looks to no one in particular till I found a person in blue overalls approach me. So I asked him if he could help me change the flat tyre of my car. I still don’t know as to how and why did he agree to help but he did. So in order to hide my ignorance about location of the spare wheel, I requested him to remove it from the boot while I loosened the wheel nuts in front. On sighting the spare wheel which the Good Samaritan took out from somewhere inside the boot, I heaved a sigh of relief. After changing the tyre, and keeping everything back in the boot (which permitted me to erase my ignorance about the tyre’s location) I asked him as to would I get a new tyre. He told me that a couple of kilometers further ahead on the same road, I would find the local office of ‘Budget’ who would do the needful. I thanked him and drove off. Sure enough, the ‘Budget’ office was a little ahead on the road and I pulled over in front of it.

When I approached the person at the counter with my car hire papers from Geelong and told him that I had a flat tyre, he looked puzzled and queried, “Sir, the car had new tyres.  How did you manage to get one flat with in 100 kms?” (What impressed me most in Australia – and it does even now when I go to the US, as to how people address you as ‘sir’ even at the most provocative and frustrating situations!) Now, I couldn’t tell him the actual reason, so I lied and concocted some improbable story about a sharp edged stone on the road. He didn’t seem convinced but took my word for it. He then handed over a signed slip to me and directed me to visit the Dunlop agency close by for getting a new tyre. I did exactly that and was able to resume my journey of which 650 kms were still balance within an hour of the incident of flat tyre – which was pretty cool.