Van Life

 I have had some experience with van life, and have even mentioned it in my "Different Saumyas" post. No, I'm not talking about selling my house and living in a van like recent social media trends might have you thinking, I'm simply talking about commuting to school and back in a van.

Like I said in the post linked above, it definitely contributed to my personality. I am not the kind of person who would just not say anything when somebody attempts to be rude anymore.

It has also given me a few of my fond memories.

One very rainy day, the streets had flooded and the van stopped on the road. The driver (who was the worst out of all I had during my van life) simply stepped out of the car and went into some unknown abyss out of our sight without saying a word . This lack of concern for us was not uncharacteristic of him, more on that later. The van currently had a girl my age, a boy a couple years junior, and of course, me. All was fine and well and we continued chatting.

Suddenly,

White smoke appeared,
coming out of the engine,

right beneath our feet.

As any person that age would do, we freaked out, yelled, and got out of the car. Our shoes and socks, were fully drenched.
Luckily, the place we were had some trees and they also had a circle of cement around the soil in which they were growing in. We hopped on the platform it provided and I think even "climbed", more like hopped onto the tree for a few seconds.

Then the driver came back, rang up the phone and a new van came and dropped us to our homes.

The second story also starts with van seemingly malfunctioning. All was fine and dandy when we all undeniably started smelling something burning. Concerned, the van driver, (not the one from the previous story, I doubt he would have even stopped the van if he was in this place) stopped the van and started looking for something. All of us kids were on the tiny little footpath one the end of the road. After a few minutes, and the driver repeatedly telling us he cant find anything wrong, we realized, it was not the van, it was the road beside us being built giving the smell of coal and tar.

A third time the van stopped, we started climbing on the boundary of the house (with no intention to climb over it) which was beside us. After we noticed the house had CCTV, we all hoped the owners weren't home.

So here they are, a few mildly interesting stories from my van life.

About the worst driver- he frequently used to stop near a pan shop frequently. We all used to chat and didn't really pay any attention to where he actually went once he stepped out. One time we did pay attention, we discovered that he actually went to a liquor shop nearby and clearly walked out with a flask in his pant pocket. With the way his driving was, it was not too far fetched to assume he was drinking and driving. He promptly got fired. So that was weird.