Some Incidents..

In the past few weeks, I happened to come across policemen showing different stature. I thought I would pen those incidents.

Incident - 1

Ashok Nagar Jawahar Vidhayalaya school 4-corner road and a peak morning 9.30 traffic, vehicles are simply struck there without any movement because it is a four corner road with no signal and everyone trying to sneak into the small gaps and hence a total chaos. Particularly the autos - enough has been said about them. I can say we were far behind the road junction and were impatient for few mins as we are struck there. And then suddenly vehicles started moving and particularly vehicles were moving in order. And this could be possible in Chennai only when there is a traffic police or some other police. I was not seeing any traffic police nor any police too. I was wondering who was the person who regulated the traffic, and normally people in Chennai don't tend to obey any volunteers (I have seen a lot of people just disobeying the NCC students or any other part-time traffic police - because they know these people can't get hold of them and book them). When I crossed the 4-corner road I noticed this man, tall, handsome, well built - I guessed definitely he should be a police. Later I saw his vehicle parked bit ahead of the 4-corner junction; it read 'Chennai Sub-urban Police'. By the time my car crossed the 4-corner road, the traffic is almost cleared and this guy in his casual dress was walking to his vehicle where his driver was waiting. So he should be an Inspector of Police who was passing by the road and he did care about the public, got down from his vehicle and started to regulate the traffic. Not many of them do this. I liked the way he regulated the vehicle's movements, he was not shouting, not arrogant rather he was so pleasant with a smiling face asking vehicles in one road to wait for the others to go on.

I and my wife, who were travelling, really were so impressed to see a policeman like this.

Incident - 2

Just opposite side of Olympia Tech Park where my office is, here again vehicles are struck in heavy traffic due to the roads being narrowed due to the Metro Rail works going on. The roads when seen from the top would resemble bottle necks and normally most of the people try to sneak in to the narrow portion before the other vehicle moves in. And in once such incident a girl with 'L' board on a Maruti Swift rammed on the right side of my car, and we got down, were in an argument with her. I had taken back my car from the garage a week ago and again damage, I was frustrated. Also for the minor damage that she made to the car doors, I knew it would cost me Rs5000 (insurance would cover it of course). So I was demanding an amount of Rs3000 to the girl and she was so adamant that it was both of ours mistake and there are damages to both of our cars. I was not ready to accept that because, I know my car was not moving and she came from the behind and wanted move in quickly and hence had rammed on my car. And now there were traffic police nearby and when I asked him to settle the issue, he told me "Man, how can I talk to a girl"..and I was surprised and it was bit funny for me. Now enters another bit elderly police, he calls both of us (I was so adamant that day that I need to file a case and take it legally) and asks us compromise ourselves and don't go for any case or anything. He was so polite and he called me "Raja..leave this..these are minor things, take it easily" etc etc. Finally, I and my wife decided we would leave it and moved on to our office. Though that I felt bit frustrated, I was ok later because the complete charges were borne by the Insurance Company. But I learnt an important lesson, there would be always support from public for girls irrespective of whether they have done a mistake or not.

Incident - 3

This happened yesterday, I was waiting outside a small fast-food shop nearby my home ordering some dinner. A night police patrol jeep came and stopped in front of the shop; one guy from the shop took Rs20 to them and gave it to the police driving the jeep. This is at 9.45pm @ Kodambakkam and ironically the jeep back door glasses have various contact numbers - emergency, bribing, etc. After having a chat with the shop-owner, I came to know that it is a regular daily bata of Rs20 and occasionally chicken-rice, beef etc. And the police want public to respect them!