I have been a fortunate witness of 'THE' famous incident during my college years. I used THE here because this incident has been universally accepted as the most hillarious thing ever happened amongst friends.
We all know that Ignorance is a bliss and I am a firm believer of this adage. However, in a few funny siutations, ignorance can be a bliss to the surrounding people as well.
In the initial days of our supposed to be midnight-oil-burning years, four of us (Me, Bhargava, Nikhil and Sahai) planned to go to delhi and invited ourselves to a friend's place. As the friend was from Delhi and he had 4 long boring years ahead of him which he has to unwillingly spend at Gwalior, he decided to be our host.
He proved to be a really good host as he not only gave us his knowledgable company and showed us various places in delhi but also treated us with finger-licking delicacies which delhi as a city has to offer. So, THE incident happened in the one of the most happening places, I have ever seen in my life till that point of time. The scene was supposed to take place at a Baker's shop at Connaught Place(CP).
The setting was perfect and we were just slacking off after a tiring day of doing nothing. All of us have slept like bears of-course without the botch. So, we decided to hit the CP and do some shopping, as if we had our swiss coffers overflowing with money.
After running from one shop to another and haggling for measly bargains, we decided to treat ourselves with some pasteries. As we all were having limited amount of words at our disposal as far as English language was concerned, we decided to say the name that we all loved most, Black Forest Pastry. See, Easy to say, Good to eat, what else one can ask for. However, Nikhil had some other plans. On that particular day, he had the mindset of a fiyadeen and decided to blow himself out. He was curiously looking at a pastry which had chocolate overflowing from its sides. The name of the mouth watering thing was Chocolate Swiss Roll. I jumped in to advise him on the blunder he was about to commit.
I asked , Boss, will you be able to say this name. He said, why not, I should at least try else how will I ever learn.
I nodded with my head swinging like a upside-down pendulum and made my way to visitor's gallery to watch this epic incident. Nikhil wavered but looked determined, he slowly but surely moved to the counter and ordered, I want Chocolate.
See, it's not that difficult to say. But I think he missed something. The clerk at the counter said, Pardon, what did you say? Now, everything went out of gear and this poor chap mumbled a few words which are still ringing in my ears, Chik-Su-Roll...
What's that? The clerck beamed and gave a dirty look at him. Suddenly, Mr. Delhi appeared from nowhere and said, he needs Choco Swiss Roll. Can't you get it? The rudeness of that guy at counter diminished a bit and he gave the much coveted pastry to my friend.
Though, this has been one of the most hillarious episides in my college life but it still taught a great lesson to me. The man with biggest heart is the man who can laugh at himself. Such is the character of my dear friend Nikhil that he done two good deeds in a single go. The first being, the courage to try something new and then laughing at his own mistake. We still laugh at that incident and shout like monkeys , Give me a Chick-Su, Give me a Chick-Su.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
A helpless constable
It was a typical hot and humid day of north indian summer. I was assigned a huge responsibility of traveling to Gwalior by train and I had to take care of the cutest member of our family, our 6 year old Pomeranian, Naughty. The journey was supposed to be 12 hours long but it was made to be 24 hours long because of an accident and as a result the rail tracks had to be relaid.
As a dog cannot travel in the sleeper class and has to be locked in the guard's compartment, Me and my brother thought of taking this responsibility in shifts. Naughty growled when I tried to push him in the cage. The cage was a small room where even a full grown male can be stuffed into.
so, my poor little naughty tried to put up a fight and tried all mean to avoid the humiliation that I was forcing him to go through. I had to repent my decision as it took me almost a week after that to reconcile with him.
So, when all the means failed, the cute little creature resigned and entered into cage. So, in that little dingy guard's compartment, I was sitting there with naughty and a guard and a railway police constable. The constable in his mid fifties was explaining in detail, the terror a local dacoit has in the area through which the train was passing through. He was feeling very lucky that he was still alive after having a close encounter with the dacoit's gang.
He narrated the entire incident where the train was looted and people were beaten as they tried to hide their valuables, he thanked to the almighty that no one was killed btu felt sorry about a young man who tried to hide his wallet and was beaten up very badly.
The train was giving a great background score and the wild barren lands outside the window were creating the perfect atmosphere for eulogizing the legends of the greatest dacoit ever walked on this planet. This whole magical scene created by the underpaid and ill-equipped constable was disturberd by another underpaid but well-equipped-for-job person "Guard". He asked innocently, what will you do if this dacoit attacks this train, will you save the people.
This question somehow perplexed the cop and he opened his paraphernalia. He showed his little bamboo stick which people call laathi, he showed his whistle, his log book and his various other official douments which he has to fill in case he has to take action against anybody or has to report it to local rail police authorities. Instead of replying to Guard's question, he blatantly asked him to advise, what should a cop do without proper training and equipments. He had no shame in accepting that he will simply run for his life if any dacoit attack happens.
Before this incident, my outlook towards police department was same as the outlook held by most of people around me. However, after listening to this story from this ramshackled old cop, I couldn't agree more with him. For the first time in my life, I was having a soft corner for the very department which has been projected as the devil of our society.
I asked him, Isn't there any govt. plans for overhauling the system. He got even more confused and asked me if that means to stop the corruption. I said, yes but no, not just corruption but also the training and providing proper arms and ammunition, better intelligence and better salary.
He was able to catch hold of the last word salary and said, yes there was some plan in some pay commission but it was put on the backburner and never got implemented. However, he candidly accepted his ignorance on other points and said, we the lowest level guys never know and uttered a few north indian bad-word-delicacies for his bosses. He then went on to narrate the ill-effects of his service on his personal life.
I avoided to probe him further because as we say in our society, With police, it's better to be at an arm's distance with them. The cop kept blabbering, No-money , No-respect and No-self-satisfaction, this is the summary of a cop's life.
I took a look at the cage in which my naughty was sitting near the bars and even he was feeling pity after hearing the sad story of the person who was assigned with the responsibility of serving and caring for an entire train full of humans.
As a dog cannot travel in the sleeper class and has to be locked in the guard's compartment, Me and my brother thought of taking this responsibility in shifts. Naughty growled when I tried to push him in the cage. The cage was a small room where even a full grown male can be stuffed into.
so, my poor little naughty tried to put up a fight and tried all mean to avoid the humiliation that I was forcing him to go through. I had to repent my decision as it took me almost a week after that to reconcile with him.
So, when all the means failed, the cute little creature resigned and entered into cage. So, in that little dingy guard's compartment, I was sitting there with naughty and a guard and a railway police constable. The constable in his mid fifties was explaining in detail, the terror a local dacoit has in the area through which the train was passing through. He was feeling very lucky that he was still alive after having a close encounter with the dacoit's gang.
He narrated the entire incident where the train was looted and people were beaten as they tried to hide their valuables, he thanked to the almighty that no one was killed btu felt sorry about a young man who tried to hide his wallet and was beaten up very badly.
The train was giving a great background score and the wild barren lands outside the window were creating the perfect atmosphere for eulogizing the legends of the greatest dacoit ever walked on this planet. This whole magical scene created by the underpaid and ill-equipped constable was disturberd by another underpaid but well-equipped-for-job person "Guard". He asked innocently, what will you do if this dacoit attacks this train, will you save the people.
This question somehow perplexed the cop and he opened his paraphernalia. He showed his little bamboo stick which people call laathi, he showed his whistle, his log book and his various other official douments which he has to fill in case he has to take action against anybody or has to report it to local rail police authorities. Instead of replying to Guard's question, he blatantly asked him to advise, what should a cop do without proper training and equipments. He had no shame in accepting that he will simply run for his life if any dacoit attack happens.
Before this incident, my outlook towards police department was same as the outlook held by most of people around me. However, after listening to this story from this ramshackled old cop, I couldn't agree more with him. For the first time in my life, I was having a soft corner for the very department which has been projected as the devil of our society.
I asked him, Isn't there any govt. plans for overhauling the system. He got even more confused and asked me if that means to stop the corruption. I said, yes but no, not just corruption but also the training and providing proper arms and ammunition, better intelligence and better salary.
He was able to catch hold of the last word salary and said, yes there was some plan in some pay commission but it was put on the backburner and never got implemented. However, he candidly accepted his ignorance on other points and said, we the lowest level guys never know and uttered a few north indian bad-word-delicacies for his bosses. He then went on to narrate the ill-effects of his service on his personal life.
I avoided to probe him further because as we say in our society, With police, it's better to be at an arm's distance with them. The cop kept blabbering, No-money , No-respect and No-self-satisfaction, this is the summary of a cop's life.
I took a look at the cage in which my naughty was sitting near the bars and even he was feeling pity after hearing the sad story of the person who was assigned with the responsibility of serving and caring for an entire train full of humans.
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