Tryst with Men in Uniform
I don't know whats with these Government offices but my previous visits to any thing Government - banks, electricity departments... have always left me with a sour experience. So when I was entrusted with a seemingly harmless job of sending a registered post from the post office, I was immediately concerned. Long queues, rude staff, unnecessary delays - I had so many worries on my mind as I made my way towards the nearest post-office. But somewhere I had also been hoping that things would have changed for the better somewhat, with competition from all the private players. I would have myself preferred to pay more to some courier company, except that I wasn't sure if they catered to such small destination. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed and the old reputation was preserved with complete proficiency.
I was somewhat relieved to see only 2 persons in the queue ahead of me. From the small barred window, I leaned to catch glimpse of a man in his early fifties, bespectacled and balding with gray hair. He must be the postmaster, I assumed. He had a kind face and was busy filling out details from a form in front of him into a computer. I was impressed to see for myself that our post-offices were now computerized. I watched as he repeated the motion of looking at the form, then trying to locate the corresponding alphabet in the keyboard. Everytime he was successful his eyes would lit up and he would lift his right hand and take his leftmost finger towards the keyboard and press the key ever so gently. Looking at the concentration that he was working with gave the impression that he was a member of Delhi Police Bomb squad trying to diffuse a deadly bomb that could go off any second if he was even a little careless. Anyways I can't be too critical of this. Surely he was forced in his retirement days to make use of the advancement in technology when he pretty much preferred the old way of managing everything on paper.
I waited patiently for him to finish typing or for the computer to blow-up, whichever happens first. Finally he finished typing and I was thrilled to find myself second in the list. The person in front of me was there to send a money order. Post-master ji took his money-order form and immediately started shouting that the whole form has been messed up and needs to be filled up again. The person expressed his inability to read/write and requested him to fill the form on his behalf. At this masterji stated in clear terms that it was not his job to fill the form for him. Even on repeated requests he refused to budge from his stand. Made me think about that postman I used to see in Doordarshan serials who will happily ride a bicycle from village to village delivering letters. He would great each person cheerfully as he delivers the letter and would be too glad to read out the letter to the village damsel, anxious to hear from her spouse or the aging father worried about his son's welfare in the big city. He would even take dictation for a letter from behind a veil or over a puff of hookah.
Anyways, this postmaster was clearly different and believed in the sanctity of his job, lest he ended up doing something that was not required of him. I offered to fill up the form for the person. As I scratched my brains over the form which always have to be too cryptic for the commoners, postmasterji quietly made his escape. Clearly typing in one complete form and shouting on another was too much for his tiring bones. As we waited and expressed our discontent in hushed tones, postmasterji was replaced by a younger person, and we were glad that this post-office was not being run by a single person. The younger person unfortunately turned out to be in equally bad mood - I guess it has to do with those caged counters because every person behind them seem to be in a mood which is a mixture of anger, annoyance and frustration. He declared that the destination address for the money order was wrong and there was no way such an address could exist in India. When the sender insisted that he has been sending money on the same address for last 3 years, he gave up with a look that said its your money, so do whatever you want with it.
It was my turn next, and I suddenly found myself in the spotlight. Luckily I was let off cheaply except for an instruction to remove the stapler pins and glue the envelope instead. I hurriedly carried out the instruction, and got myself in the queue behind the person who had replaced me at the front. The same procedure of entering details was repeated without any further incidents, and I was handed a printed receipt of my registry. I was actually glad - although unpleasant - I had actually managed to complete my mission in a single attempt. Now only if the letter reaches its destination, all this might be worth it. And its only once in a few months that you are tested by such encounters. Little did I realize that the same day I would be heading off to a police station next.
What happened was that a colleague lost his wallet. He wasn't sure whether it was stolen or he dropped it - the only thing certain was that he had it in his pocket when he started off for work in the morning. He had little hope of its recovery, although there have been miracles where in a person has received his wallet in his mailbox after dropping it somewhere. He quickly got his credit cards disabled. Besides 2500 Rs, he had also lost his Driving License, and needed a police verification to apply for a new one. Obviously none of us were expecting police to really find the wallet.
Anyways at the police station we were asked to submit an application written in Hindi. Now its our turn to feel ashamed but writing an application in hindi proved a real Herculean task for the two engineers. First glimpse at the application and it was immediately rejected. We had mentioned that the wallet was stolen and the police-wala refused to accept such a blemish on the criminal records of his area. Didn't we know that things like robbery and theft no longer occur in Noida (or they are not registered) and if anyone lost something he must have definitely dropped it somewhere. So we re-wrote the application to correct our little mistake after being laughed at by the people present there over our ignorance.
On receiving the application, the police-wala told us that the application needs to be printed on a stamp paper, and either we can get that done, or we can pay him 160 Rs for the stamp paper and he will buy it for us. On first look the offer seemed really kind - he was saving us all the trouble of buying a stamp paper and printing the letter on it. But coming from police the kindness was immediately under suspect. I called up a friend to find out if such a stamp-paper is needed and he confirmed that it wasn't. I tried to argue with the policewala but he handed the application back and asked us to get it printed on a stamp paper. Finally he asked for 100 Rs and we saw no other option to get that verification letter. Its sad though to realize that having lost 2500 Rs, his DL and cards, my colleague had to bribe the police-wala to get a verification letter without even a false hope that police can actually make an effort to trace the wallet.
So often I have heard incidents when police have flatly refused to lodge a complaint of a theft or a robbery simply to maintain a better record. My own mobile was stolen from my house in banglore but the police there too refused to file an FIR. When as a kid my bicycle was stolen from our verandah, I was heart-broken. I loved my bike and I was hopeful that if we report it to the police they would find it. Don't they have so many resources, forensics. But my father wouldn't agree to register a complaint and I was really mad at him for that. Now I know he was just being wise - no one in the police has time to solve such petty cases. I wish I could have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing a better job of solving the apparently bigger cases. Evidently its impossible to register even a complaint unless you find some contacts.
I know there must be several ways in which I benefit daily from our law and order system. The fact that I am able to work and live peacefully in an environment where more and more people are developing an attitude to snatch what doesn't belong to them and to exploit anyone they can, means that there is some system out there protecting me. But as for all my direct contacts with the police, I would have preferred that they never existed. As a citizen I don't view a police-wala as someone who is out there for my safety. Rather my experiences have taught me that most police-walas simply try to show-off their power, talk rudely and never miss a chance to extort money out of helpless people. They drive around on bikes without helmets, to demand bribes from other traffic violators. I know all of us have seen all this for ourselves. For now I dont know of any means to get our police to do something for me or even worse to save myself if ever I happen to get on the bad side of some policewala, except to call on someone who knows someone in police or someone important enough to exert some influence. Till I find such contact, I would do well to avoid any contact with any unlawful entity and even more importantly our beloved police.
I was somewhat relieved to see only 2 persons in the queue ahead of me. From the small barred window, I leaned to catch glimpse of a man in his early fifties, bespectacled and balding with gray hair. He must be the postmaster, I assumed. He had a kind face and was busy filling out details from a form in front of him into a computer. I was impressed to see for myself that our post-offices were now computerized. I watched as he repeated the motion of looking at the form, then trying to locate the corresponding alphabet in the keyboard. Everytime he was successful his eyes would lit up and he would lift his right hand and take his leftmost finger towards the keyboard and press the key ever so gently. Looking at the concentration that he was working with gave the impression that he was a member of Delhi Police Bomb squad trying to diffuse a deadly bomb that could go off any second if he was even a little careless. Anyways I can't be too critical of this. Surely he was forced in his retirement days to make use of the advancement in technology when he pretty much preferred the old way of managing everything on paper.
I waited patiently for him to finish typing or for the computer to blow-up, whichever happens first. Finally he finished typing and I was thrilled to find myself second in the list. The person in front of me was there to send a money order. Post-master ji took his money-order form and immediately started shouting that the whole form has been messed up and needs to be filled up again. The person expressed his inability to read/write and requested him to fill the form on his behalf. At this masterji stated in clear terms that it was not his job to fill the form for him. Even on repeated requests he refused to budge from his stand. Made me think about that postman I used to see in Doordarshan serials who will happily ride a bicycle from village to village delivering letters. He would great each person cheerfully as he delivers the letter and would be too glad to read out the letter to the village damsel, anxious to hear from her spouse or the aging father worried about his son's welfare in the big city. He would even take dictation for a letter from behind a veil or over a puff of hookah.
Anyways, this postmaster was clearly different and believed in the sanctity of his job, lest he ended up doing something that was not required of him. I offered to fill up the form for the person. As I scratched my brains over the form which always have to be too cryptic for the commoners, postmasterji quietly made his escape. Clearly typing in one complete form and shouting on another was too much for his tiring bones. As we waited and expressed our discontent in hushed tones, postmasterji was replaced by a younger person, and we were glad that this post-office was not being run by a single person. The younger person unfortunately turned out to be in equally bad mood - I guess it has to do with those caged counters because every person behind them seem to be in a mood which is a mixture of anger, annoyance and frustration. He declared that the destination address for the money order was wrong and there was no way such an address could exist in India. When the sender insisted that he has been sending money on the same address for last 3 years, he gave up with a look that said its your money, so do whatever you want with it.
It was my turn next, and I suddenly found myself in the spotlight. Luckily I was let off cheaply except for an instruction to remove the stapler pins and glue the envelope instead. I hurriedly carried out the instruction, and got myself in the queue behind the person who had replaced me at the front. The same procedure of entering details was repeated without any further incidents, and I was handed a printed receipt of my registry. I was actually glad - although unpleasant - I had actually managed to complete my mission in a single attempt. Now only if the letter reaches its destination, all this might be worth it. And its only once in a few months that you are tested by such encounters. Little did I realize that the same day I would be heading off to a police station next.
What happened was that a colleague lost his wallet. He wasn't sure whether it was stolen or he dropped it - the only thing certain was that he had it in his pocket when he started off for work in the morning. He had little hope of its recovery, although there have been miracles where in a person has received his wallet in his mailbox after dropping it somewhere. He quickly got his credit cards disabled. Besides 2500 Rs, he had also lost his Driving License, and needed a police verification to apply for a new one. Obviously none of us were expecting police to really find the wallet.
Anyways at the police station we were asked to submit an application written in Hindi. Now its our turn to feel ashamed but writing an application in hindi proved a real Herculean task for the two engineers. First glimpse at the application and it was immediately rejected. We had mentioned that the wallet was stolen and the police-wala refused to accept such a blemish on the criminal records of his area. Didn't we know that things like robbery and theft no longer occur in Noida (or they are not registered) and if anyone lost something he must have definitely dropped it somewhere. So we re-wrote the application to correct our little mistake after being laughed at by the people present there over our ignorance.
On receiving the application, the police-wala told us that the application needs to be printed on a stamp paper, and either we can get that done, or we can pay him 160 Rs for the stamp paper and he will buy it for us. On first look the offer seemed really kind - he was saving us all the trouble of buying a stamp paper and printing the letter on it. But coming from police the kindness was immediately under suspect. I called up a friend to find out if such a stamp-paper is needed and he confirmed that it wasn't. I tried to argue with the policewala but he handed the application back and asked us to get it printed on a stamp paper. Finally he asked for 100 Rs and we saw no other option to get that verification letter. Its sad though to realize that having lost 2500 Rs, his DL and cards, my colleague had to bribe the police-wala to get a verification letter without even a false hope that police can actually make an effort to trace the wallet.
So often I have heard incidents when police have flatly refused to lodge a complaint of a theft or a robbery simply to maintain a better record. My own mobile was stolen from my house in banglore but the police there too refused to file an FIR. When as a kid my bicycle was stolen from our verandah, I was heart-broken. I loved my bike and I was hopeful that if we report it to the police they would find it. Don't they have so many resources, forensics. But my father wouldn't agree to register a complaint and I was really mad at him for that. Now I know he was just being wise - no one in the police has time to solve such petty cases. I wish I could have the satisfaction of knowing that they are doing a better job of solving the apparently bigger cases. Evidently its impossible to register even a complaint unless you find some contacts.
I know there must be several ways in which I benefit daily from our law and order system. The fact that I am able to work and live peacefully in an environment where more and more people are developing an attitude to snatch what doesn't belong to them and to exploit anyone they can, means that there is some system out there protecting me. But as for all my direct contacts with the police, I would have preferred that they never existed. As a citizen I don't view a police-wala as someone who is out there for my safety. Rather my experiences have taught me that most police-walas simply try to show-off their power, talk rudely and never miss a chance to extort money out of helpless people. They drive around on bikes without helmets, to demand bribes from other traffic violators. I know all of us have seen all this for ourselves. For now I dont know of any means to get our police to do something for me or even worse to save myself if ever I happen to get on the bad side of some policewala, except to call on someone who knows someone in police or someone important enough to exert some influence. Till I find such contact, I would do well to avoid any contact with any unlawful entity and even more importantly our beloved police.
No comments:
Post a Comment