a little essay about driving in rural India

kullu gang

Remember to chase the insurance company when the renewal is due as they dont bother to remind you and you lose your premium my cars insured with Lombard they done this to me and I paid by an extra RS3500 also there useless.As for selling a car does any one knows how that works I have been told dosnt matter if it in perfect condition or not as you will only get the vaule whats on the insurance policy in a year I losed 3 lakh on my vehicle and its only done 7500 k.

birds

Sunderam Insurance tries to pull this off too. We found their overall service was poor, we had to phone to get a receipt of payment, to get the policy documents, remind them to renew etc.

I changed insurance company's two years later. We now use Bajaj Alliance which is better. The agents are still lax but they have a good back office in Pune which calls often to check whether the agents are doing their job.

Much to my surprise this year we got a huge reduction on the car premium, from 12,000 to 7,000. Something to do with increased competition. I think that is a good sign and may lead to improvement in other areas too.

Dilliwala

k g, I've learnt from bitter experience too that ICICI Lombard is lousy, I shud have stayed with the govt, slow but sure. Going back to them (OIC) next time.

The insured value has nothing to do with re-sale value, even uninsured cars get sold! Try your luck - if you can hold out, so much the better.

roopeeman

Those bloody holes!

mazha

Had a good laugh over the falling monkey!

Here is more strange story: a snake fell on an Enfield driver near Kannur, Kerala. He was bitten on his face, and died. The strange part is that the snake didn't fall from a tree, it was an eagle's potential lunch, but somehow got away, and fell bang on the unfortunate driver! I guess there is no way you can cover for something like that!

roopeeman

What happened to the poor snake?

allen

It is not all monkeys and goats; pedestrians too play hell on the roads.

mazha

It broke a fang and a couple of bones, now has a permanent zigzag disability, but was awarded trauma insurance, and has relocated near that rat temple. Living happily thereafter, except for problems with getting out of old skin due to the zigzag disability, and also finding an equally zigzaggy mate.

As for the eagle, it lost all its confidence, and has turned into a scavenger, now follows around mongooses to grab scraps of leftover snake. Never flies with food these days, is occasionally seen giving low-altitude joy rides to mongoose kids.

kullu gang

Thanks Dilliwala I can hold out a while so you advice is well appriciated ,I also have a mahindra pick up that I bought last year I cheaked that policy and that is insured with the goverment who out of the blue phoned me yesterday to remind me that the policy runs out in 5 days maybe these private companies have rushed to india but have not organized any of there staff.

Aishah

Kullu - I'm impressed with your insurance reminder - when you say government, which name is the insurance branch under? We have never had reminders from any of the companies we have used! The only company LIC is the one who sends out bills and reminders for Mr K's life insurance.

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

capt_mahajan

As others have said, and me elsewhere, private insurance companies are, in my view, avoidable in India.

The government/Public sector ones:

LIC for life insurance

General Insurance:
National Insurance
United India Insurance
Oriental Insurance company


there may be smaller ones, I don't know. These are the largest.

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Outside the machine

Cayle

Remember kids! Always wear a full face helmet!

Talk about freak accidents! Was the snake one of the big four? Or did he die from crashing the bike after having a snake on his face?

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jitubisht

Great write up. As hilarious it may be to read, its true. Thanks

OotyAnn

Having read all of that...I'm wondering if it might be possible to buy a cow and keep it as a pet in Varanassi where I'm going. You could travel around with it and get priority crossing the road, and you could ride alongside it on a bike - attached to it by a garland of marigolds - and have the holy cow insurance policy. The only one worth having by the sound of things.

mazha

Not sure what kind of snake it was, but I remember that he died because of the bite.

There was this news story recently about a guy who was bitten ten times by snakes, he is like a snake magnet. There was one woman who got bit 28 times over the years, and died with the 28th bite. The strangest part of that story was that she went to an astrologer after a few bites, and was told that she would be bit 28 times and would die only after the 28th bite! Maybe the insurance folks should start looking at horoscopes too! Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if that happens.