By 'police encounter', I don't mean that some gun wielding policeman tried to finish me off instead of arresting me in order to avoid all the hassles and legalities of capturing me legit and trying me in a court of law. By Gawd, no! I am a God fearing, law abiding citizen. I had lost my driver's license and the RTO refused to issue me a duplicate without an acknowledgment from the police.
I dreaded going to the police station because I knew that they would try to fleece me off before they handed me the letter of acknowledgment. Maybe I would have to use up all my refunded caution deposit(all 6k of it) from college on these lathi wielding officers.
Anyway, I was accosted by a non liveried officer at the entrance of the station. Maybe he was just a clerk.
Me: Sir, I need to get a blah blah... and explained what I wanted
Officer/clerk: Where did you lose it?
Now I had really misplaced it at home itself. But even I knew that it would be a dumb thing to own up on the truth to this guy.
Me: I umm..., lost it in the Jayanagar swimming pool.
Gun wielding constable listening in on the conversation: You have to go to the Tilaknagar Police Station for that. The swimming pool is their jurisprudence. (Now of course, he wasn't using such fancy words, I'm only using them to impress my fellow readers about my vocabulary skills.)
Okay, they were at it now. Typical technique used to put you off. I was too lazy to go to Tilaknagar station you see, so I would be willing to bend some rules to get things done here itself. In short, give them money in exchange for getting it done here itself. I would be damned if I gave in to their play. And so was I damned.
Me: Sir, can't I get it done here itself somehow?
Officer/clerk: Nope. What are you doing by the way?
Me: I'm a student sir.
Officer/clerk: Besides, you need to get an affidavit to prove that you really lost the DL. That will cost you about a hundred bucks, so you might as well pay the amount here and rid yourself of the difficulties of making an affidavit.
So that was it took, a hundred bucks. I shouldn't stand upto all this corruption. I must fight it off. Give them a piece of my mind. Even if it means walking back home empty handed and facing the ire of my father. Or I could just pay him a hundred.
Me: Show me how it's done.
Officer: Right this way. I'll tell you what to write in the letter.
While we were sitting at his table and he dictated the letter to me: What are you studying?
Me: I just finished my Engineering sir, in Electronics.
Officer: Where?
Me: KREC sir, Surathkal.
Officer raises his eyebrows in admiration. Wow, this guy recognizes KREC. Boy, KREC rules. The college brand did bail me out on another occasion although I can't tell you that incident now.
Officer: So you looking for a job now?
Me: No sir, already got one.
Officer: How much they pay you?
Now, I'm going to get an obscene amount for a fresher at Nvidia, but I figured if he heard the amount, he would decide to fleece me more. So I played it safe.
Me: Oh, about three and a half to four lakhs.
Officer: Per month!!!
Me: Whoa, no way! Per annum sir.
Officer: You guys are well educated. Me, I'm just a tenth standard pass. Here, hand me the letter. You stay here while I get the signature from the Sub Inspector.
True to his word he gets the job done and hands over the letter to me. My hand goes to my back pocket to fish for the purse but he gives no signal for money. In fact he takes me to the Police Inspector and introduces me.
Officer: This here sir is THE software engineer.
The inspector grunts and goes back to what he is doing. Although I was offended for being labelled a Software Engineer(you see I am a Hardware Engineer), I took it in good stride. I thanked the officer/clerk for his help and left almost overwhelmed that I had accomplished the arduous task without spending a pie on bribery.
Maybe the police force was improving. Too early to tell. Anyway, I walked away with a spring in my step and hope in my heart.
I dreaded going to the police station because I knew that they would try to fleece me off before they handed me the letter of acknowledgment. Maybe I would have to use up all my refunded caution deposit(all 6k of it) from college on these lathi wielding officers.
Anyway, I was accosted by a non liveried officer at the entrance of the station. Maybe he was just a clerk.
Me: Sir, I need to get a blah blah... and explained what I wanted
Officer/clerk: Where did you lose it?
Now I had really misplaced it at home itself. But even I knew that it would be a dumb thing to own up on the truth to this guy.
Me: I umm..., lost it in the Jayanagar swimming pool.
Gun wielding constable listening in on the conversation: You have to go to the Tilaknagar Police Station for that. The swimming pool is their jurisprudence. (Now of course, he wasn't using such fancy words, I'm only using them to impress my fellow readers about my vocabulary skills.)
Okay, they were at it now. Typical technique used to put you off. I was too lazy to go to Tilaknagar station you see, so I would be willing to bend some rules to get things done here itself. In short, give them money in exchange for getting it done here itself. I would be damned if I gave in to their play. And so was I damned.
Me: Sir, can't I get it done here itself somehow?
Officer/clerk: Nope. What are you doing by the way?
Me: I'm a student sir.
Officer/clerk: Besides, you need to get an affidavit to prove that you really lost the DL. That will cost you about a hundred bucks, so you might as well pay the amount here and rid yourself of the difficulties of making an affidavit.
So that was it took, a hundred bucks. I shouldn't stand upto all this corruption. I must fight it off. Give them a piece of my mind. Even if it means walking back home empty handed and facing the ire of my father. Or I could just pay him a hundred.
Me: Show me how it's done.
Officer: Right this way. I'll tell you what to write in the letter.
While we were sitting at his table and he dictated the letter to me: What are you studying?
Me: I just finished my Engineering sir, in Electronics.
Officer: Where?
Me: KREC sir, Surathkal.
Officer raises his eyebrows in admiration. Wow, this guy recognizes KREC. Boy, KREC rules. The college brand did bail me out on another occasion although I can't tell you that incident now.
Officer: So you looking for a job now?
Me: No sir, already got one.
Officer: How much they pay you?
Now, I'm going to get an obscene amount for a fresher at Nvidia, but I figured if he heard the amount, he would decide to fleece me more. So I played it safe.
Me: Oh, about three and a half to four lakhs.
Officer: Per month!!!
Me: Whoa, no way! Per annum sir.
Officer: You guys are well educated. Me, I'm just a tenth standard pass. Here, hand me the letter. You stay here while I get the signature from the Sub Inspector.
True to his word he gets the job done and hands over the letter to me. My hand goes to my back pocket to fish for the purse but he gives no signal for money. In fact he takes me to the Police Inspector and introduces me.
Officer: This here sir is THE software engineer.
The inspector grunts and goes back to what he is doing. Although I was offended for being labelled a Software Engineer(you see I am a Hardware Engineer), I took it in good stride. I thanked the officer/clerk for his help and left almost overwhelmed that I had accomplished the arduous task without spending a pie on bribery.
Maybe the police force was improving. Too early to tell. Anyway, I walked away with a spring in my step and hope in my heart.
3 comments:
not a bad one at all
sounds too easy to be true
hw much are u getting though?
@phoenix
seven lakhs per year that is
i lost my dl too ... made up a story of losing it in a bus ... should get a new one tomorrow
Post a Comment