Making Amends

This evening while we were at Ani's parents' house, Ani had a little visit from an unknown guy (accompanied by 2 other guys that did all the talking for him). It turns out that it was the driver from our accident last October. I wasn't there for the actual conversation, but this is what Ani conveyed to me about the guy:

• He's due in court on August 24th and wanted to discuss an "out of court settlement"
• He claims he is poor and wants to avoid paying lawyers fees and what ever settlement the court comes up with
• He apologized and even touched Ani's feet (a sign of respect here)
• He admitted that he was drunk that night
• He offered to pay our medical expenses

It was weird to talk in detail about something that happened nearly a year ago and we had put well behind us, but we discussed the offer. In the end, Ani agreed to accept a small amount in "damages" to cover the camera that was in my purse that night and is now functionality, but badly smashed. I'm actually surprised that this guy bothered to come to the house at all. I would imagine that it was a difficult step and certainly took more courage that showing up in court and fighting the charges would have.

And I'm even more surprised at the slow, yet functional legal system here. We heard from Ani's brother-in-law (who is a Delhi police officer) that the driver was arrested that night and posted bail. And we assumed that because it was a government car, little action would be taken. In the days and weeks that followed, we were so occupied with doctor's visits and recovering that we didn't bother to follow up with the police. It even took us 3 months to collect Ani's bike from the police station. We figured we were healthy and didn't need to deal with the headache of the time-consuming and usually ineffective Indian legal system.

Hopefully, this is the end of it. And don't worry, no more riding motorcycles for me (or Ani).