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.