A lot of ‘new things’ have happened to me but i haven’t a clue what i should be writing.

Bye!

Well the sole purpose of this post is to convey- I’m alive and kicking.

I’m not ill (Except for the slight cold I ‘received’ yesterday ). I ain’t gone er.. underground (Prakash, underground? huh ) Actually, Prakash called me 2 days ago to check my whereabouts. He asked me if I’d gone underground because he didn’t see me posting since long

Anyways the only reason is Work. @#!$!@#

We guys are working on a new project, with some tight schedules. Since the last 3 months, me n my team have showed up at Work almost all weekends. Did someone ask- What about the weekdays?  Of course, we wud show up on weekdays . For someone like me, who used to be in bed n watch TV the whole of Saturday n Sunday, it was difficult initially. But life teaches you a lot of things, u see.

I’ll certainly try to find time for myself, so that I can keep writing. Actually there are a 100 things I wanna talk about. From what I’ve gone through in the last few months. But time doesn’t permit. To be frank, its hunger which isn’t permitting currently I’m at work n I need to go get something for myself.

Peace!

[Post Edit: 20jun09
Crap eradication movement]

Good Morning everyone and thank you for giving me this chance to speak
to you. This day is about you. You, who have come to this college,
leaving the comfort of your homes (or in some cases discomfort), to
become something in your life. I am sure you are excited. There are
few days in human life when one is truly elated.  The first day in
college is one of them.  When you were getting ready today, you felt a
tingling in your stomach. What would the auditorium be like, what
would the teachers be like, who are my new classmates – there is so
much to be curious about. I call this excitement, the spark within you
that makes you feel truly alive today. Today I am going to talk about
keeping the spark shining. Or to put it another way, how to be happy
most, if not all the time.
Where do these sparks start? I think we are born with them. My 3-year
old twin boys have a million sparks. A little Spiderman toy can make
them jump on the bed. They get thrills from creaky swings in the park.
A story from daddy gets them excited. They do a daily countdown for
birthday party – several months in advance – just for the day they
will cut their own birthday cake.
I see students like you, and I still see some sparks. But when I see
older people, the spark is difficult to find. That means as we age,
the spark fades. People whose spark has faded too much are dull,
dejected, aimless and bitter. Remember Kareena in the first half of
Jab We Met vs the second half? That is what happens when the spark is
lost.   So how to save the spark?
Imagine the spark to be a lamp’s flame. The first aspect is nurturing
– to give your spark the fuel, continuously. The second is to guard
against storms.
To nurture, always have goals. It is human nature to strive, improve
and achieve full potential. In fact, that is success. It is what is
possible for you. It isn’t any external measure – a certain cost to
company pay package, a particular car or house.
Most of us are from middle class families. To us, having material
landmarks is success and rightly so. When you have grown up where
money constraints force everyday choices, financial freedom is a big
achievement. But it isn’t the purpose of life. If that was the case,
Mr. Ambani would not show up for work. Shah Rukh Khan would stay at
home and not dance anymore. Steve Jobs won’t be working hard to make a
better iPhone, as he sold Pixar for billions of dollars already. Why
do they do it? What makes them come to work everyday? They do it
because it makes them happy. They do it because it makes them feel
alive. Just getting better from current levels feels good. If you
study hard, you can improve your rank. If you make an effort to
interact with people, you will do better in interviews. If you
practice, your cricket will get better. You may also know that you
cannot become Tendulkar, yet. But you can get to the next level.
Striving for that next level is important.
Nature designed with a random set of genes and circumstances in which
we were born. To be happy, we have to accept it and make the most of
nature’s design. Are you? Goals will help you do that.
I must add, don’t just have career or academic goals. Set goals to
give you a balanced, successful life. I use the word balanced before
successful. Balanced means ensuring your health, relationships, mental
peace are all in good order.
There is no point of getting a promotion on the day of your breakup.
There is no fun in driving a car if your back hurts. Shopping is not
enjoyable if your mind is full of tensions.
You must have read some quotes – Life is a tough race, it is a
marathon or whatever. No, from what I have seen so far, life is one of
those races in nursery school, where you have to run with a marble in
a spoon kept in your mouth. If the marble falls, there is no point
coming first. Same with life, where health and relationships are the
marble. Your striving is only worth it if there is harmony in your
life. Else, you may achieve the success, but this spark, this feeling
of being excited and alive, will start to die.

One last thing about nurturing the spark – don’t take life seriously.
One of my yoga teachers used to make students laugh during classes.
One student asked him if these jokes would take away something from
the yoga practice. The teacher said – don’t be serious, be sincere.
This quote has defined my work ever since. Whether its my writing, my
job, my relationships or any of my goals. I get thousands of opinions
on my writing everyday. There is heaps of praise, there is intense
criticism. If I take it all seriously, how will I write? Or rather,
how will I live? Life is not to be taken seriously, as we are really
temporary here. We are like a pre-paid card with limited validity. If
we are lucky, we may last another 50 years. And 50 years is just 2,500
weekends. Do we really need to get so worked up? It’s ok, bunk a few
classes, goof up a few interviews, fall in love. We are people, not
programmed devices.
I’ve told you three things – reasonable goals, balance and not taking
it too seriously that will nurture the spark. However, there are four
storms in life that will threaten to completely put out the flame.
These must be guarded against. These are disappointment, frustration,
unfairness and loneliness of purpose.
Disappointment will come when your effort does not give you the
expected return. If things don’t go as planned or if you face failure.
Failure is extremely difficult to handle, but those that do come out
stronger. What did this failure teach me? is the question you will
need to ask. You will feel miserable. You will want to quit, like I
wanted to when nine publishers rejected my first book. Some IITians
kill themselves over low grades – how silly is that? But that is how
much failure can hurt you. But it’s life. If challenges could always
be overcome, they would cease to be a challenge. And remember – if you
are failing at something, that means you are at your limit or
potential. And that’s where you want to be.
Disappointment’s cousin is  frustration, the second storm.  Have you
ever been frustrated? It happens when things are stuck. This is
especially relevant in India. From traffic jams to getting that job
you deserve, sometimes things take so long that you don’t know if you
chose the right goal. After books, I set the goal of writing for
Bollywood, as I thought they needed writers. I am called extremely
lucky, but it took me five years to get close to  a release.
Frustration saps excitement, and turns your initial energy into
something negative, making you a bitter person. How did I deal with
it? A realistic assessment of the time involved – movies take a long
time to make even though they are watched quickly, seeking a certain
enjoyment in the process rather than the end result – at least I was
learning how to write scripts, having a side plan – I had my third
book to write and even something as simple as pleasurable distractions
in your life  – friends, food, travel can help you overcome it.
Remember, nothing is to be taken seriously. Frustration is a sign
somewhere, you took it too seriously.
Unfairness – this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is
how our country works. People with connections, rich dads, beautiful
faces, pedigree find it easier to make it – not just in Bollywood, but
everywhere. And sometimes it is just plain luck. There are so few
opportunities in India, so many stars need to be aligned for you to
make it happen. Merit and hard work is not always linked to
achievement in the short term, but the long term correlation is high,
and ultimately things do work out. But realize, there will be some
people luckier than you. In fact, to have an opportunity to go to
college and understand this speech in English means you are pretty
damm lucky by Indian standards.. Let’s be grateful for what we have
and get the strength to accept what we don’t. I have so much love from
my readers that other writers cannot even imagine it. However, I don’t
get literary praise. It’s ok. I don’t look like Aishwarya Rai, but I
have two boys who I think are more beautiful than her.. It’s ok. Don’t
let unfairness kill your spark.
Finally, the last point that can kill your spark is isolation. As you
grow older you will realize you are unique. When you are little, all
kids want Ice cream and Spiderman. As you grow older to college, you
still are a lot like your friends. But ten years later and you realize
you are unique. What you want, what you believe in, what makes you
feel, may be different from even the people closest to you. This can
create conflict as your goals may not match with others. . And you may
drop some of them. Basketball captains in college invariably stop
playing basketball by the time they have their second child. They give
up something that meant so much to them. They do it for their family.
But in doing that, the spark dies. Never, ever make that compromise.
Love yourself first, and then others.
There you go. I’ve told you the four thunderstorms – disappointment,
frustration, unfairness and isolation. You cannot avoid them, as like
the monsoon they will come into your life at regular intervals. You
just need to keep the raincoat handy to not let the spark die.
I welcome you again to the most wonderful  years of your life. If
someone gave me the choice to go back in time, I will surely choose
college. But I also hope that ten years later as well, your eyes will
shine the same way as they do today. That you will Keep the Spark
alive, not only through college, but through the next 2,500 weekends.
And I hope not just you, but my whole country will keep that spark
alive, as we really need it now more than any moment in history. And
there is something cool about saying – I come from the land of a
billion sparks.

These days everyone who sees me smiles at me. In fact, at work, people whom I’ve never spoken to, give me wicked smiles No, I haven’t done anything incredible at work. You’ll find out the reason soon…

Well I’ve a newfound time-saver tip to boast about this week.
A closely shaved Haircut….

The benefits:

• Getting ready for work in the morning just demands a bath. No hair conditioning, no hair dressing… (Sometimes even the ‘bath’ is an option for the brave  )
• Bath is a jiffy too. No shampooing, no hair drying either.
• You don’t need to carry a comb. (I don’t remember the last time I carried a comb on myself. I guess it was when I was in 12th grade)
• You don’t need to stand in front of the mirror ten times a day at work, to ‘check’ your hair.
• You aren’t recognized easily. By people whom you owe n by your sick fans

Well I’ve got rave reviews for this, the worst being ‘Nice haircut. It suits you.’

Another review I recollect is the one I got at home… ‘How will you face people now?’ 
I’ve always wanted to have my hair real short, but I often dropped the idea thinking what others would say. I was afraid kids would get scared on seeing me..

But then what gave me strength was reminiscing a promise i made to myself a few months back,
‘If you are really passionate about something, indulge yourself. Come what may. Don’t care about the rest of the world.’

So now every morning I get up, I feel satisfied looking at myself

(Post edit-18Oct2008

Today I came to my blog after a long time. N I realized I had written crap here. Also the snap looked terrible. My apologies to everyone who had to bear it I tried to correct what I could in the little time I got)

I finally reclaimed my old phone number last night.
I enjoyed the ‘Not Reachable’ experience for 37 days. I was still enjoying being ‘undisturbed’, when I started getting credit card calls again this afternoon. Phew!!!

I went to the Airtel Customer Service Center on Saturday. As I was afraid they might assign my number to someone else, due to lack of activity.

One of the gals ..er.. Customer Service Executives asked “Yes Sir?”
“I lost my cell and I wanna get a new card with the same old no and….” I tried to start my story.
“Fill out this form and give one Identity-proof Xerox” she interrupted me. It seemed like she did that 100 times a day. May be crimes in Pune, especially mobile thefts, are too common these days. And may be I’m not finding enough time in the mornings to read newspapers.
We exchanged some crass jokes. I then filled the form in a jiffy, left the Address field blank and returned it to her. I hate filling out forms especially the Address fields.

“Address ain’t a required field right?” I asked cheekily.
“That’s fine.” She replied with a smile, while stapling the form and my ‘Xerox’.

She took out a new card, noted the card identity number and gave it to me saying “It’ll be activated in 48 hours.”

“Thank You” I smiled and got out, my job done in 5 mins flat.

I love female Customer Service Executives They are so friendly

I finally resumed my gym services. There are a lot of changes at the gym. Some rooms have been converted to store rooms. The gym owner ain’t there; so no one’s swearing at me or asking me to pay up first. There are several new faces (or bodies) I can see.

If there’s someone who’s happy reading this, then do care to read the next sentence.
What you read above was just a small snippet of a dream I had 2 nights back.
The fact is-I’m still reluctant to restart my workout counter. This time, thanks to the frequent rains.
I seriously wish someone would bless me saying ‘May all your dreams come true’.

I was wondering why we can’t recall all of our dreams? If you’ve noticed, we tend to remember only a small fraction of our dreams, if at all any. I found an interesting article and here are some excerpts…

“Dreams are a very important part of us and affect our lives whether we remember them or not. And by tapping into them, we can explore and work through issues before they have even come to light. One of the great benefits of dreams is that they can show us what we are thinking about or are concerned with in our lives, often at a subconscious level.”

If this is true, then why didn’t I dream about my ‘girlfriend’?
And what about the nightmares I sometimes get, wherein me or my friends get into fights, accidents and all sorts of problems? Sometimes people I know, even fall into wells accidentally.. LOL…
You might think that was juvenile, but sometimes I do get real crazy nightmares.. hehe

“Most people remember dreams, or at least remember dreaming, when they awaken in the morning. The reason for this is because the vast majority of dreaming occurs in the last third of sleep. But if you have little or no dream recall, here are a few tips that could help:

Learn how to “wake up slowly.” When you first wake up in the morning, lay quietly in bed and don’t immediately start thinking and worrying about the day ahead. Try to concentrate your mind on whatever it was that you were just dreaming about – even if at first you can’t remember dreaming about anything.

Many dreamers who practice this “slow awakening” technique say that it is important to lay still as they are waking up. Moving their bodies distracts their mind from being able to recall the last dream.”

Here’s the link, if you wanna read the whole article.

Wow. I’m gonna try this tonight or may be tomorrow morning. Pray that I do have a dream tonight.

My greatest fear is that I might doze off again, under the pretext of ‘slow awakening’.

MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE!!!

[Post Edit] 15/07/2008

Last night I dreamt something related to ‘horse-riding’. That’s all  I can recall.
I don’t think you can practice ‘slow awakening’ when your mom almost kicks you out of bed to wake you up 

Thursday, I make a 2nd trip to the same old Police Station.

 
12noon:
2 new faces of ‘officers’ greeted me, as I’d expected. I had a terrible experience with the 2 old faces the last day. I’d made sure I carried everything today, the Railway ticket I used to travel on Sunday and the mobile receipt.
The new faces comprised an SI (2 stars, remember the tip? :P) and a Head Constable. I repeated the entire crap to the SI Manekar. A small twist in the story though. This time my answer to the ‘Are you working’ question was “I’m studying for PGDBM”. I was planning to do a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM), but I’ve finally called it off because I believe God has different plans for me, than becoming a CEO.
Anyways I think I’d be forgiven for that lie as it helped me avoid a greater sin-bribe. I personally try my best to avoid a bribe. It’s not really about the money. I wouldn’t like to give away even a 10-rupee note as a bribe. Though, once when I was caught driving without license/vehicle papers at 11pm, I did pay 75 bucks instead of the 400 he was asking for a pavti (receipt):P They ask any damn amount. I think it’s because I don’t know the rules. I could’ve argued with him if I knew what fines are like.

 
I’ve never seen an ad for police recruitment. I guess it would be something like this…
Salary: Basic Rs5000 + ‘incentives’
Like BPO ads seen these days. Salary: Rs10000 + incentives. Hehe.

 
So let me come back to the Police Station. When they hear that the complainant’s studying, ‘they’ aren’t that adamant on getting ‘something’. But they try their best. I told him that I don’t have the money. Also told that I’d met Dhingre sahib the last day and he’d told me to just bring the ticket and mobile receipt and the FIR would be lodged. I lost count of the number of times i lied now
Since I wasn’t ready to pay up, he told me that I was too late for the FIR. So “Get an affidavit stating that you were traveling by train, and you lost your mobile on this date and this place.”

 
Amidst all this, I saw 2 boys aged less than 20, being dragged inside into the other room. Their clothes were removed and they were being hit by the policemen. I’d never seen policemen hitting ‘criminals’ in real before. And I now realized that they hit pretty bad. They were using something which looked like a large leather flap to hit them.
I headed to the Collector’s office which is a kilometer away. After all the ordeal of getting an affidavit from the Collector’s office, I returned to the police station.

 
2.15PM:
The policemen were having their lunch. The SI had gone out for lunch. He came back in a few minutes. He started reading my affidavit. He said to the lady Constable ‘Make an application on his behalf saying he lost his mobile, mentioning all details. Mention that the cell was lost, not stolen’.
‘If you mention that the cell was stolen, I can’t give you an FIR statement to you now.’ He said to me. I thought I might need an FIR statement so that I could give it to my Mobile Service Provider for blocking my SIM card.
I feel if the FIR mentions the cell as stolen, they might’ve to investigate compulsorily.
The lady also gave me a statement with stamp mentioning that my cell has been lost.

The SI now tried to emotionally blackmail me saying ‘You gave the lawyer 150 bucks. We did so much for you. Nothing for us, huh?’
I repeated that I was studying and blah blah…
“Since your work has been done now, you have forgotten us, right? That’s not fair.” he said.
When he saw that I was reluctant he said “Anyways, go..go..”
I tried to make a sad face and got the heck out of the room, once and for all.
By the way, my watch showed 3PM.

(Names have been changed to protect identity & protect myself )

Once inside the Collector’s campus, I asked for directions to “Where can I get an affidavit made?”
I was directed to a large hall. If someone needed the meaning of ‘chaos’, I could tell him “See. This is chaos”.

There were 14 counters (At least that’s what the signboards told me) . But I couldn’t see a single line.. er… queue. (In India, people use the word ‘line’ instead of ‘queue’ ) It was complete mayhem, the same way a crowd gathers around the stage for a ‘Shaan’ performance; people shoving and standing on each other. Queues merged into each other, but strangely enough, everyone knew which queue they were in, who’s before him and who’s after him. I had to ask people “Where does this line go-4 or 5?”
I found the smallest queue and I could count atleast 15-20 people ahead of me. On an average, each person spent atleast 15 mins at the counter. I got lost calculating the approximate time it’d take, for me to reach the counter. A ‘good Samaritan’ there told me that my affidavit need not be made with the Collectors stamp, but I can get it made from any of the Advocates standing outside. I now realized why I’d seen hordes of people in ‘Black Coats’ outside the office.

I now realized wearing black to the collector’s office could be the greatest wardrobe malfunction; someone could mistake you for a lawyer.:P (I was NOT in black, btw) I myself stared at many people wearing black.
In fact, some even asked them ‘I need this agreement done regarding…?’
‘Excuse me. I’m not a lawyer’ 

For one moment, i thought wearing black at the collector’s could be a good economic choice, too. Because I couldn’t help looking at some ‘black coats’ with suspicion. ‘He cannot be a lawyer!!!’ i thought looking at some of them 

I was told to get a stamp paper worth 50 bucks for my affidavit. When I came back with the stamp-paper, I found a ‘black coat’, aged around 50-60 yrs, parking his 2-wheeler at the Collector’s. I narrated my stuff to him and asked him what he’d charge for it.
“Rs 150”
I lied that the others were doing it at 100.
He said there’s a lot of work for this. 150 is nominal.
I didn’t argue now.

He took out his suitcase, kept it on his 2-wheeler and started writing on the stamp-paper everything from my name, address, DOB, my mobile details, the crime scene, et al.

Meanwhile I noticed a 20-something guy sitting behind us on another vehicle and writing something. He might be writing his personal diary, or maybe he is some crazy blogger like me. He smiled at me, I returned the favor.
“What are you writing?” I asked.
“I’m just writing about a small incident when I was on a picnic. Actually I’m doing it so that I can improve my English. I’m trying to get into a BPO”
“You want to get into a BPO? That’s nice. I worked for 8 months in a BPO” I showed interest.
“Where do you work now?” he asked
“In a software company” I replied
“That’s great.” He seemed elated.
‘What’s so great about it. I’ve never felt it that way?. Maybe he said that because of the salary you get in the software industry.’ i thought to myself.

 
He had gone for an interview in a software company sometime back and got rejected in the last round because of lack of Communication Skills. He’d always wanted to get into software. He had completed his Bachelor’s and then a 1-yr computer course. But was jobless for about a year.

“And now?” i asked.
“Now I’m studying Law. Completed first year. This is my dad” he said, pointing to my ‘black coat man’ who was writing my affidavit beside me.
‘Wow! Good he told me this. Otherwise I might’ve accidentally said ‘something’  regarding his dad. Lucky escape. Phew’ I thought to myself
“It’s good business being a lawyer, man. See you can earn so much in a day. Hehe. By the way, your dad forced you to take up Law?” I whispered to him. I was indeed ruing the fact that I didn’t become a lawyer. It’s such a lucrative profession. You get hundreds of clients. Every 30 mins can earn you around 150-200 bucks here.
“Yes. I wanted to get into Software. But, my parents said that since you couldn’t make out a career on your own, do what we say now” he whispered back.
He took my email address. I took his name-Ravindra (As far as I can remember). ‘Make sure you mail me’ I told him.

I’d say that-If you can read this, you need to be grateful to God. Getting to do what you like to, is not a choice every mortal gets. Imagine a guy who loves Computer stuff being forced to take up Law. Unemployment can often deprive one of choices in life. My grandfather keeps saying ‘Getting a good job at the age of 21 is God’s grace. You need to be grateful to Him.’ I often ignore him because he says that 10 times a day, once in front of every guest who comes home. With the BPO/Call Center boom in India, I thought ‘Everyone has a job today’. But I now felt a ‘job’ is indeed a privilege.

  
Meanwhile Ravindra’s dad had completed my affidavit. I told him “Please take Rs100 instead of Rs150”
He agreed, may be because I spoke to his son for so long.

I casually asked him about what next at the police station. “Just submit this. I don’t need to pay them anything, right?”
“You might’ve to give them something. Some small amount maybe Rs150” he replied
“Why? Registering an FIR is their duty, right? Why do I need to pay for it?” I asked
Just then another man who’d come to ‘my lawyer’, tried to explain with some stupid logic.
“If we’ve excess wealth, we must share some with them too. They aren’t paid much. It’s OK. Let everyone enjoy the party, man. It’s like- Live and let live.” the stranger said.
“Sir, I don’t mind giving money to a poor person. Even some policemen are poor, I agree. But you are paying him just because you want something done from him. You aren’t paying because he’s poor. Would you’ve paid him if you wanted nothing from him and you just casually met him on the way?” I argued with the stranger.
“Everyone has different perspectives” the stranger said.
I think I won it.

I had the privilege to talk, in general, with a Police Constable when I’d gone to lodge an FIR.

And I learnt a lot of things that I didn’t know about policemen….

• They work 12 hours a day, in shifts. The police station remains open 24 hours a day, though.
• They’ve one weekly off. It’s not any fixed day of the week.
• They get ‘meager’ wages
• They don’t get TA/DA i.e. Travelling/Petrol/Daily Allowance.. That means if investigation requires travelling, fuel and food expenses don’t get reimbursed.
• They get free travel by train though, for investigation.
• Every case is assigned to a person by his boss, and that becomes his task.
• Small tip on Ranks of policemen
  • Three stars: Police Inspector
  • Two stars: Sub-Inspector of Police
  • One Star: Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police
  • You can find detailed info about police ranks here.
• The Police Inspector doesn’t have a fixed timing as he has several cases under him. And he has to visit several places as part of investigation.

(All statements listed here are opinions of an individual. They need not be true/applicable in all cases)

Now the title for this essay ‘Three hours at the Police Station’

Sunday (8th June)night, I lose my cell.

Monday, I’m too sad to discuss with anyone.

Tuesday, my friend Anand tells me that lodging a police complaint could help me trace it as one of our friends had got his cell back with police help. “Just carry your mobile phone purchase bill”. I realized that every mobile phone has a unique ‘International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) No. This no is transmitted by a phone along with it’s SIM card no, everytime there’s a communication. So even if the SIM card is changed, the phone can be traced using the IMEI no.

Wednesday, I go to the Police Station attached to the Railway Station. 

A flashback of my first visit to a police station crossed me. In fact, that was the sole visit I had to my credit (Lest you consider me some terrorist:-P ).

This Station was different. A small entrance leaded me to the grim room. Two khaki-dressed men stared at me. Recognizing Police ranks by the number of stars on their shoulders had never been my forte.

‘Hmm’ said one, his expressions asking ‘What is it?’

‘I want to lodge an FIR (First Information Report)’ said I, still at the entrance.

‘What?’ he asked, even though I was loud enough to be heard.

‘Want to lodge an F-I-RRR’ I repeated, this time louder.

‘Come here’ the second khaki called me in.

I saw two other women in khaki inside.

‘What happened?’ the second khaki guy asked. He was a Constable, which I figured out minutes later.

‘I lost my cell. I want to register an FIR’, I replied.

‘Where?’ That’s always their first question, to find out if the crime scene is under their jurisdiction. If no, they can send you away straightaway, you see?.

‘Inside the railway station. Platform no 5’

‘Why had you gone there?’ he asked rudely as if I’d gone to a drug-peddler’s den. I think they behave rude, to try and ‘scare off’ the complainant. Because every complaint means more work to them.

‘I was going to Dehuroad by the 11.05 train’.

‘When did it happen?’ he asked

‘Sunday night. 8th June’ I replied.

‘It happened on Sunday? And you are coming today? Its already Sunday-Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday- 4 days already. You can’t log a complaint now’ he tried to discourage me.

Why is their mathematics so bad? I thought to myself.

‘Sir, it happened on Sunday night, right? So it’s Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday afternoon. So it’s 2.5 days.’ I tried to get his basics correct

‘Yes. But it’s too late. Why didn’t you come and tell us the same night it happened. We are here 24 hours. We don’t close shop and go home’ he said, sporting a wicked smile and checking if the 2 women Constables liked his sad joke.

‘I thought it might’ve fallen somewhere. So I was searching for it amongst us.’

‘No, no, no…’ he said looking outside. After a few seconds, ‘Do you’ve the railway ticket you used to travel that day?’

‘No. I’m carrying the mobile receipt though.’ I said.

‘Mobile receipt is fine. But what’s the proof that you traveled by train that day?’ he said taking my receipt.

‘It was worth 12000Rs?’ he asked, surprised/sad/happy. I couldn’t decipher his expression.

‘Yes’ I replied. I now noticed that his ‘nameplate’ said-R.S. Dhingre.

Now came his million dollar question. (I later realized it was rather a 500 Rupee question:-) )

‘Are you working now?’ he asked. He had become visibly suppressed now, from his previous rude self. May be because he saw I was determined to get the FIR done.

I didn’t want to lie. So I said ‘Yes’.

And there, there went my first mistake. Don’t worry; I’m not talking about ‘the 3 mistakes of my life’.

He made me put my entire employment history in front of him.

‘Wait for my boss to come. He’ll tell you what we can do since you don’t have the ticket.’ He said

‘OK’ I replied, happy that he didn’t ask for money.

Meanwhile I checked out an India-Pakistan match in the ‘TV Room’ inside. I also gossiped with ‘Dhingre saheb’ and we discussed about everything from his working hours to ranks in the State Police.

It was a wonderful, knowledge-enriching session. And, yes, I’ve written about this insight into the life of policemen.

It was getting late. So I asked him ‘Does he come around this time everyday?’

‘Yes. He should come now. Actually the thing is..’ he started brushing his fingers to indicate money.

‘What? How much?’ I asked, acting surprised.

‘500’ was the reply.

‘What? We spoke so much and I saw that you were a good man. And now you are asking this?’ I tried to flatter him.

‘It’s not for me. It’s for everyone. All my bosses here.’ He said.

‘I don’t have so much money. I’ve already lost my cell, sir. And now another expense?’ I requested.

‘Then wait for my boss to come.’

Finally, his boss came. While I was explaining everything to him, I saw that he had 2 stars on either shoulder. That meant he was a Sub-Inspector.

After repeating all the crap to him, including the ‘WORKING’ question, he said, ‘Give whatever small thing he asked and he’ll take your complaint.’ signaling towards Dhingre.

‘But Sir I don’t have the money. I’ve already lost my cell.’ I hate repetition, but I didn’t have a choice.

‘But since you don’t have the ticket….’ he tried to explain.

‘OK. I’ll bring the railway ticket tomorrow, so that you can lodge a complaint.’ I said. I’d called dad sometime back and asked him whether he had the railway tickets of that day. Luckily he hadn’t thrown them away. And I love him for this. He preserves every damn thing.

‘You still have the tickets with you? Of Sunday?’ he asked. I loved the dumbfounded/sad expression on their faces. I couldn’t completely decipher this either.

‘We, both are on leave tomorrow.’ He said.

‘Someone else would be here? OK’ I replied hoping for a better time the next day.

(Names have been changed to protect identity & protect myself )