Conversation with a Delhi Traffic Cop!

Disclaimer: This is merely a narration of an incident that happened. Therefore, the language is colloquial and the author's views are not reflected in this. He is NOT a sexist(At least not any more) :)

"Hamaare Laayak koi sewa ho to bataiye"(If there is some service that I can perform for you then please tell me.)

"Pata Nahi. Spark Plug mein current nahi aa raha."(Don't Know. There is no current in the Spark Plug.)

We were headed home when the engine of the scooter died down all of a sudden. It's a trusted Bajaj Chetak(remember Hamara Bajaj, that mellifluous song?). Not a single problem in the past two years, my father was to tell me later.

I was standing guard next to it. That's when I saw two motorcycles headed towards me. They stopped just next to 'Hamara Bajaj'. The Traffic Cop was challan-ing the men because the pillion rider wasn't wearing a helmet. It took him around 7 minutes to complete the process - checking licence, vehicle documents etc and then making the challan slip.

And then... "Hamaare..." he asked me. It is rare to find a Traffic Cop in Delhi who is pleasant and nice to talk to, most are grumpy. And this guy seemed fit as well, no protruding belly. And, most importantly, I didn't see him pocketing money without a receipt!

"Helmet ka challan tha?(The challan was for the helmet?)", I asked him.

"Haan(Yes)".

"Wo nikli bina helmet ke...(That woman who just passed wasn't wearing a helmet)", I looked at him, as I asked him.

"Ladies hai na(It's a lady)".

He further went on to help improve my GK. Women don't need helmets-their heads are accident proof. Well, seriously, he told me that a couple of years back the ruling had been modified so it wasn't mandatory for women to wear helmets now. It is sad that in this country even courts go for populist decisions. That's what it was - a populist decision, I see no logical reason why women around the world can wear  helmets but Indian women can't. Are Parachute Oil and Dabur Vatika repulsive to helmets?

"Wo gayee ek lady bina seat belt ke.(There went a lady without a seat belt)", he said.

OK. Now, I was facing the traffic, he was looking in the opposite direction, and he still noticed this with the traffic moving at at least 40kph. He was damn good at the job. The girl seemed to be in her early twenties and from an upper-middle class family.

"Toh challan nahi karenge?(Wouldn't you challan her?)", I asked.

"Nahi yaar bahut dangerous maamla hai ladies ka.(No, my friend, it is very dangerous to challan the ladies)".

"Kyun(Why)?", I was curious.

"Ro deti hain yaar(They start crying).", he said. I nodded. "Kuch to m*** bhi deti hain(Some even wet their clothing)", he continued.

"Hmmm"

So all my female friends who boast about never getting challaned - well, this may well be the reason why :P The Traffic Cops are scared of you!

On a serious note, we all know that Delhi Police and Delhi Traffic Police or for that matter police in any state of this country are quite famous for harassment so it is quite easy for clever and mean female offenders to cry foul and get away. And the poor cop (assuming he is innocent) ends up jeopardising his job. So, the Traffic Police Dept to please take note - it is high time you increase the number of female cops in the force so that gender equity may be restored!

"Wo gaye Sardaarji bina belt ke(There goes a Sikh man without a seat belt)", again I had missed and he had seen. He was on his bike even before he had completed the statement and off he went.

This small conversation isn't enough for me to judge the character of that person or his competence-level in the job. But, considering that our interaction with policemen or any other public servant(on the road) is not more than a few minutes, I strongly believe that if we had more such people in the police and other departments, their image would dramatically improve.

Indi-Paki Bhai-Bhai

Today I uploaded the final batch of the designing work that I had done in college to DA(http://visualcerebration.blogspot.com) . And some of them were fav'd by people. While going through the comments I came across this man who is a Paki and had fav'd one of my works. Now, what is the problem with a Pakistani fav'ing an Indian's work, that's what you are thinking right? Ask the fundamentalists. They will tell you.

Anyhow, the big deal is not that. The point is that the particular piece was patriotic in nature. The event for which I had designed the stuff had the theme 'Iceberg India'. So, I'm feeling great, because one of my works which was mildly patriotic in nature has been liked by someone belonging to our neighbouring country with whom we have not been on good terms, and that person openly expressed it. The person must be appreciated for being objective enough to appreciate the Art.

These are signs(I know I'm extrapolating, and, a lot) that changes in technology and new communication media in the future may improve the relationship between the two countries. So we may have a day when we can say Indi-Paki Bhai-Bhai :)

One of my friends recently told me, "Man, you really do live in a world of fiction." I hope that is not the case at least as far as this is concerned.

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Ironically, today itself, in a similar fashion, I had a conversation with another Pakistani. A teenaged girl who is a brilliant photographer and aspiring to be a novelist. She's from Karachi, a city far from the Talibanised areas of Pakistan. I asked her about the situation there. "everyone's alive!", she wrote, followed  by a Big Grin emoticon. I wonder whether that grin represented a sigh of relief or sarcasm!

Age Unlimited

I started working full-time when I was 17. The average age of the people around was 26. So, I never thought I'd ever feel odd working with people elder to me. But, today when I went to the office to complete the formalities I had that feeling. People at the same level as me around 15 years elder. The feeling surfaced probably because I'm returning to working with older people after a long time.

Wonder how my peers who don't have similar experience feel. And most of all I wonder how the older people will feel about the newbies joining them!