Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Times have changed!!!

Well, at the risk of sounding a bit dramatic, I must say that last night was a bit of an eye opener for me. A lot of pre conceived notions got cleared up and my respect and faith in the "system" and the police force went up a notch.

Now the reason why I am writting this is just because I think its all right for us to criticize the "system" when it doesnt work properly, but I believe its also our duty to give credit where it is due.

Anyways, last night, me, Kalle and Puri were coming back from Nirula's towards home (the flat that we have shifted to in Mall Apts), we have christened it as L Niwas. Anyways when we were waiting at the traffic signal, a Maruti Esteem jumped the red light and hit a rickshaw at pretty high speed.

The impact was quite ugly, the front wheel of the rickshaw got twisted in a heap of metal, the rickshaw wala also got injured pretty bad. The guy in the Esteem didnt bother to stop, even when he was given a chase by the others he just swerved and sped away. We rushed to check on the rickshaw wala, Kalle helped him to the side of the road, while me and Puri tried moving his rick away from the middle of the road.

What was really disappointing was nobody bothering to stop to allow us to move the Rick out of harm's way. At this moment Puri said "This is Delhi for you". Somehow we got the rick safely moved to the side of the road with the help of another rickwalla. I had taken the number of the vehicle. Me and Puri looked at each other. We werent sure whether we wanted to call the police. Guess, this was because of our middle class upbringing where we are taught to stay out of trouble, to turn a blind eye to matters that doesnt affect us.

Somehow it didnt feel right, it just didnt. I called up 100, not 100 percent sure of what to expect. A gruff male voice answered, I simply told him that an accident has happened close to University Metro Station, and there is an injured guy. He said he would send someone, but somehow I wasnt really convinced. I dont know why, but I wasnt.

We waited, getting convinced by each passing second that nobody was going to come and this is how things work. I kept telling Puri that these calls get logged, he will have to send someone, but probably that was more to convince myself than him. But after about 3-4 minutes we spotted a PCR gypsy, it was a reassuring sight, that yes things arent that bad, it isnt the same country that my parents grew up in.

The gypsy came close, an officer got down, we gave him the details of the car, they took it down, they asked the injured Rickshaw wala whether he wanted to go to the hospital, the rickshaw wala was probably in shock and was scared too. So they decided to take him to the hospital.

They went away, and we came back home. But this wasnt this simple. It was a day which changed my perception entirely of the police and the "system". I know there are people who would have had not so pleasant experience or rather some would even accuse the police of even more cruel things but the point being, like any other organization even they arent perfect. But that doesnt mean that we totally give up on them.

I know for a fact that the next time something happens, I would not hesitate before calling up 100.