
For some reason I am attracted to the nocturnal aspects of Mumbai life a lot. Nd tat results in regular night time experiences of various kinds. One of them i have written about in an earlier post which u can read about
here. Now, this post is also about a similar encounter with mumbai police in the middle of the night. The reason i use the term 'encounter' is that there are several images of the police fraternity in our minds, most of them being negative. However, I have developed a lot of respect and liking towards the "police" community of late, mainly coz i think they deserve that much at least.
It was a Saturday night, which is a time in the week everyone looks forward to, especially techies like me who are deprived of all social life. I had been out on my Bullet since the evening , even as Yuvraj was murdering the Lankan attack mercilessly. Had a gr8 evening out with my Bullet Club,"Torquehub", buddies and as usual we headed to a dhaba at Panvel for dinner and beer. By the time i started back towards Vashi, it was 2.15am and BOY! wat a ride it was. For people who complain about hot winters in mumbai, I would request them to be out in the night anytime after 12.30 , if not as late as me. My knuckles had almost frozen by the time i reached Sanpada stn., never riding below 80-85kmph.
Even then, i was adamant at not letting the night take over and end, so soon. Picked up my roomie and went for chai on the highway. We got to chatting over few steaming cups, updating each other about the events of the week and stuff and completely lost track of time. Wat we failed to notice was tat a couple of policemen on their bikes had already taken notice of us, jus standing and chatting with my bike parked alongside. Finally they proceeded to make the killing and approached us. Checked all the papers of ma bike and myself. Everything was in order except the fact that i had not yet transferred the bike to my name. Also, my wrist watch said tat d time was 4am.
Now i agree tat is a stupid mistake , more so coz it has been almost 6 mnths tat i have been owning the Bullet now, but there's a lot of respect with which policewallahs talk to you wen u own a Bullet and i have never had any problems till date regarding this particular issue. But somehow i felt that nite tat those 2 were the 'corrupt' type and proving me rite, they started grilling me about how my papers weren't in order and all. The senior fella asked for 5000 bucks and I also made up my mind to get off without paying anything .
Wat ensued was 45 minutes of logic, counter-logic, pleading, scolding and lotsa acting. To be fair to them , they had come down to Rs.1000 and i was looking up to d heavens saying "Please God, u know i respect these guys a lot. Don't let these ones loot me" !! :P The senior one den asked for my bike keys and after much effort, started d bike (engine was cold by tat time). He den took the bike out for a ride while the other fella was busy writing down my details in a letter of complaint against me. It was a game of nerves and I wasn't the one to blink first. Senior came bak with my bike, informing me tat my rear brakes' liner needed tightening. I knew den, that my Bullet's charm had again done the trick. :D They both den said,
"Chalo abhi fatafat bolo kitna do ge? Apne ko akkha raat tere saath magaj maari nahi karne ka. Aur bhi kaam hai"
my roomie replied,
"Sir, Please warning de ke chhod dijiye! Mere ko toh naukri se bhi nikaal diya. Mera dost 1 mahine se mere ko khila raha hai"
Nd i said,
"Sir paise dene ke condition mein hai nahi apan. Aapko main apne haathon se chicken bana ke khilaunga kal. Aap ghar aana. Lekin paise nahin de paunga."
Den Senior replied,"Chal tu itna bol diya , kaafi hai! Lekin ainda se raat ko awara-gaddi mat karna. Aur bike paper transfer karwa le ."
YES!!! I had won. I had brought down the bribe amount from 5000 to "Zero", jus by perseverance and pleading :P :D
But, more importantly, once again I was impressed with the Police. No doubt they take bribes and are corrupt. But, tat nite's incident proved that they r not blood suckers nd tat they wud not always stoop down to any level to get bribes. Of course, it helps if you have a Bullet :D . But den again these people , who are branded as villians by the media, movies etc. , have a humane side worth appreciating. And it takes jus tat to make them happy. And I take this oppurtunity to mention yet again about how hard they work to maintain Law & Order. No doubt it is their duty to do so, but tat doesn't mean tat it shud go unnoticed. How many times do we complain tat our bosses don't appreciate any good job done by us? We expect our bosses to pat our backs for doing something which we are paid for but fail to do d same or the Police.