Trivial incidents that we get involved in may save us from embarrassments, or hardships in the future. Let me narrate one such incident I came across at the fag end of the year 2021.

On 27 December evening, I visited a medical shop.  The shop owner showed me a driving license he found lying in front of the shop and asked whether I know the person by his address/photograph. I made out that it belonged to one of our neighbours and so I volunteered to return it back to the owner. The next day early morning I telephoned him and taunted him asking whether he had lost any identity proof documents. He promptly replied that he lost his old driving license and has started using the new one. He added that I need not take the trouble of returning the old license back to him and requested me to destroy it.

This prompted me to check my driving license and to my dismay, I found that its validity expired on 31 December 2020. I checked the web on the procedure to renew an expired driving license, and I learned that we have to go through the whole procedure of obtaining an original driving license except for getting a learner’s license. I immediately called a relative, who is employed in the Motor Vehicle Department of Kerala. He confirmed my finding on the procedure for renewal of an expired license, but he told me that he will check on any extension of the date of renewal due to the pandemic. Within a few minutes, he sent me a copy of the government order extending the validity of such documents till 31 December 2021, which was a further extension from 31 October 2021. This gave me just three days to renew my driving license. I submitted a prescribed medical certificate, along with three copies of my latest photograph at the RTO office. I am now a relieved man.

 My visit to the medical shop and my picking up the lost and found driving license from the shop keeper, saved me from the hardship of going through the procedure for securing a driving license including the ignominy of driving the H in front of a Motor vehicle Officer.

Such happenings make us value even the trivia that comes our way.