I will confess that the title of my blog is 'inspired' by a leading radio station's concept but after this incident took place, I couldn't come up with something better.
A few months back, my colleague and I were driving back from work and my colleague just crossed a traffic signal when it just turned yellow. A cop asked us to stop and then approached our car. My friend like an innocent citizen stopped his car and rolled down the window to speak to him. The cop in his typical Haryanvi accent says… “Yeh traffic signal dikhaee nahin deta ke”. My friend tried explaining the cop that the light was green while he had started crossing and that it might have turned yellow somewhere midway. By this time my friend had already stood out of his car. Seeing him get out of the car, I stepped out of the car too. The cop took notice of this and this time tells me “Madam, aap gadi mein jaake baitho”. Both these people had a 5 minute long discussion after which my friend too sat in the car. I asked him whats the matter? How do you intend to tackle this. He had to go out of India for an official trip the next day and by no means he could have left his license with them. Where was the time and the journey back home was also long considering we had not even covered one-fourth of it. My friend later told me that he would probably give some money to the cops.
A while later, the cop came, my friend rolled down his window and the cop asked my friend… "Kya karna hai". My friend says “Sir aap batao… kya main kuch kar sakta hoon… kal subah meri flight hai”. The cop says… “Ab aap apna license de do, thane se collect kar lena”. My friend now responds by saying “Sir aap paise le lo, kal meri flight hai”. The cop asks him “Kitne paise doge?” My friend replies “jitney bhi mere wallet mein hain…" The next action is funny… the cop takes off his cap, just slides it in a little bit through the window so that nobody sees him, indicates my friend to put in money inside the cap, my friend takes out a 500 rupees note and puts it in the cap. The cop wears the cap carefully and cleverly to keep the note discreetly in place and walks away.
I was shocked but laughed quite a bit on this incident after that. I was shocked not because I saw the cop taking money. But because of the funny way by which he took the money from my friend.
It is a funny yet vicious circle we fall prey to each day in some form or the other. We blame the system, but I believe we are equally a part of it, may be unintentionally but we all do it… Lets just accept it!
A few months back, my colleague and I were driving back from work and my colleague just crossed a traffic signal when it just turned yellow. A cop asked us to stop and then approached our car. My friend like an innocent citizen stopped his car and rolled down the window to speak to him. The cop in his typical Haryanvi accent says… “Yeh traffic signal dikhaee nahin deta ke”. My friend tried explaining the cop that the light was green while he had started crossing and that it might have turned yellow somewhere midway. By this time my friend had already stood out of his car. Seeing him get out of the car, I stepped out of the car too. The cop took notice of this and this time tells me “Madam, aap gadi mein jaake baitho”. Both these people had a 5 minute long discussion after which my friend too sat in the car. I asked him whats the matter? How do you intend to tackle this. He had to go out of India for an official trip the next day and by no means he could have left his license with them. Where was the time and the journey back home was also long considering we had not even covered one-fourth of it. My friend later told me that he would probably give some money to the cops.
A while later, the cop came, my friend rolled down his window and the cop asked my friend… "Kya karna hai". My friend says “Sir aap batao… kya main kuch kar sakta hoon… kal subah meri flight hai”. The cop says… “Ab aap apna license de do, thane se collect kar lena”. My friend now responds by saying “Sir aap paise le lo, kal meri flight hai”. The cop asks him “Kitne paise doge?” My friend replies “jitney bhi mere wallet mein hain…" The next action is funny… the cop takes off his cap, just slides it in a little bit through the window so that nobody sees him, indicates my friend to put in money inside the cap, my friend takes out a 500 rupees note and puts it in the cap. The cop wears the cap carefully and cleverly to keep the note discreetly in place and walks away.
I was shocked but laughed quite a bit on this incident after that. I was shocked not because I saw the cop taking money. But because of the funny way by which he took the money from my friend.
It is a funny yet vicious circle we fall prey to each day in some form or the other. We blame the system, but I believe we are equally a part of it, may be unintentionally but we all do it… Lets just accept it!
9 comments:
Hey,
Nicely put... So do you think that the friend shud not have given the money!!!
Very well written. This is an incident we witness almost every day of our lives but the way you have taken notice of it and put the experience in words is commendable! keep up the good work and keep blogging :)
@vikas: Thanks. I think the friend had no other option as the cop had caught him for no fault of his. The only fault was that my friend decided to be ethical and stop unlike others who just speed up and vanish. :-)
@Preeti: Thanks. I have witnessed incidences of challans but what caught my attention was the way by which the cop took the money and how they do not want women to not be a part of such conversations. It was clever of the cop to have done so! Thanks so much for your comments.
Good one!
I was checking out ur posts and found them truly worth a read.
Well, I'm looking for a guest blogger for my blog. Check out this link http://intheorbit.blogspot.com and lemme know if you would be interested!
Hi,
Well, this is a story that we all can easily relate to, irrespective of the fact which part of the country we come from. The only thing that varies as we move from one part of the country to the other is the size of the note. While the circumstances leading to these actions and the consequences are debatable, but they have rather become cliches. So, without dabbling into making trite remarks, i would say the the price that your friend paid was little on the higher side. I believe that if we can't change the system, we can at least control the economics of the system by paying the right price to save ourselves from the unfair discrimination meted out at us by those shameless agents of corruption.
Hello All(who will read this),
We all are young guys and our kids are going to live in corrupt india or not, is solely i our hands.
We are all humans, and to err is human. Once in a while,mistakes happen by me too.I have been in Delhi(now I am a Delhite only) for last 11 years. And once in a while, even i have been caught by that HAFTA WASULI WALA GUNDA(I am sorry, i cant call police man to a corrupt person). What I have always done, I am sharing with all of you. You can not only save your money but also India of your children.
See, First of all dont show to that person that you are in any hurry. Be polite, dont be rude(never hurt his ego). Try to apologise(it works altho not as much as money do). In mean while, if u can excuse urself, ensure that u have taken all notes of denomination 50 or more from your wallet and let lesser denominations be there. Dont roam around him. Let him ask, sir what to do? After 5-10 minutes, he himself will say, if you give this or that...then u can always beg for sorry, saying I am extremely sorry, but I dont have enough bla bla bla..Show him the purse..Believe it or not, he wont accpet 10ners and 20ers. After 5 or 10 min he will let you go.(off course, you are not carrying original RC,DL etc.But Pls carry Photocopies, fair enough that we are suppose to, then they are also suppose to serve govt not themselves).
Guys, with me it has always worked. Just that you will have to sacrifice 20 odd minutes.
And guys, its just the mindset. I have decided I will not give bribe, and with god's grace till date I haven't. At times I have to take pains although e.g. when I got MTNL Phone, but at least I feel good....
All the best to all..
i think u were brought up in india and if its so..m surprised u find it strange..dear its prevelent here since ages.ya ppl do talk about hating d system and all bt the fact being evryone want to save his ass, no mattr if its take a little scrwin d system..ur friend did d same..
P.S- the challan for jumpin the red light is "600 bucks", and ur friend paid 500 for it(almost 85%). i could have bargained the thulla fo even less.;-)
hmmm interesting ....
true. we are the ones who r ruining this system & complaining at the same time.
well written .
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