Prachi Sharma, an executive at Cars24, an online marketplace for buying and selling used cars, sparked an online debate after revealing that the company was slapped with a ₹50,000 challan in Gurgaon. She claimed that what started as a joke, deploying a branded boat on a flooded road, turned into an actual commute as stranded commuters began using the vessel to cross the water.
“ ₹50,000. That is what it cost us to break the law in Gurgaon last week. The crime: a boat. The location: a road. The road: a river,” Sharma wrote on LinkedIn. She shared a picture showing four people rowing a blue-coloured boat with “Cars24” written on the side along a waterlogged road.
Adding context, Sharma continued, “We put a Cars24 boat in the water as a joke about the rain. The challan arrived in seconds. The flooding has been arriving for years, and has never cost anyone anything.”
She claimed that the situation worsened when people started using their boat as a mode of transportation. “People started getting in to get home because rowing was the fastest way across. A joke stops being funny the moment it becomes a commute. We have paid for the boat. We will pay the challan again (if we are required to take the boat out this week as well, to help people apparently). Still waiting for someone to be billed for the water and sincerely hoping this does grab the right eyeballs.”
Gurgaon rainfall update:
{{/usCountry}}She claimed that the situation worsened when people started using their boat as a mode of transportation. “People started getting in to get home because rowing was the fastest way across. A joke stops being funny the moment it becomes a commute. We have paid for the boat. We will pay the challan again (if we are required to take the boat out this week as well, to help people apparently). Still waiting for someone to be billed for the water and sincerely hoping this does grab the right eyeballs.”
Gurgaon rainfall update:
{{/usCountry}}Heavy rainfall has once again plunged Gurgaon into chaos, bringing severe waterlogging to key roads across the city. Frustrated commuters faced a gruelling journey home as public transport ground to a halt, while cab-hailing apps reported sky-high wait times and steep surge pricing.
The severe urban flooding disrupted daily life so drastically that local authorities were forced to issue a temporary work-from-home advisory earlier this month.
According to the official website of the India Meteorological Department, Gurgaon is predicted to have “Partly cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers” on August 11. There are no warnings in place.
What did social media say?
An individual wrote, “Floodwater isn't just water, it's sewage, hidden debris, and electrified with live wires. A stunt that starts as a joke can end as a liability the moment someone slips, gets injured, or worse, gets swept away trying to climb in. You paid ₹50,000 for the challan. One bad headline, Brand Boat Capsizes in Gurgaon Floods, would have cost you 50x that in reputation and legal fees. More importantly, flooding has paralysed Gurgaon for years with zero accountability. By physically entering that water, you inadvertently normalised the crisis instead of highlighting its absurdity with clean hands.”
Another joked, “Still much cheaper than advertising on digital billboards, hoardings and screens.” A third posted, “The boat may have been the headline, but the real story is that people found it useful. When a joke starts solving a real problem, it says more about the infrastructure than the campaign itself.”
A fourth commented, “OMG! How did they track down the phone number through the Boat registration number?” Sharma responded, “Traffic cops are everywhere, haha!”
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. Hindustantimes.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)