My Date with a Traffic Cop

I left office early, since I did not feel like sitting there. I reached home at 6:30pm, and I had no clue about how to spend the evening. So I hit upon the plan of roaming around Chennai alone. I had plans of buying a few books and the cassette of Anbe Aruyire, the latest album from A. R. Rehmaan.

I reached Higginbothams from KK Nagar in 20 minutes flat. It’s a 8-10 km ride and it was the peak traffic time. (Bangaloreans, this info is for u!!!!)

I bought The Runaway Jury by John Grisham and The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy, the time was only 8pm, there was still time before I retired to bed. So I decided to go to Spensers Plaza and bide my time there. So I took my bike from the parking lot in front of the Higginbothams, and got into Mount Road, in search for a U-Turn. I went upto the Head Post Office signal without success, and at this signal, I could not find any signboard that told me not to take a U-Turn.

Now, in Higginbothams, I had seen a babe who was in the queue for paying for books, and we left Higginbothams together. She was also in search for a U-Turn and I saw her taking a U-Turn at that signal. So I went ahead and was about to take a U-Turn, when a traffic cop appeared from nowhere. He signaled me to stop, and my first instinct was to run away. So I turned by bike to my left, but the cop quickly moved to his right, and covered the way. In one swift movement, he snatched the keys from my bike and asked me to take the bike to the side of the road and park it here.

So I obediently wheeled the bike to side of the road, put it on my side stand and wait for the cop to come. Finally, after 10 minutes the cop comes near me and tells me that there is no U-Turn here and I needed to pay a fine of 100/-. I pleaded in vain, arguing that there was no signal that warned me about the U-Turn. While I was pleading, I think his sight caught my number plate and he saw the Karnataka registration. So pat came the next question, “Where is your NOC.?”

I had foreseen such an incident before I left Manipal, and hence had procured an NOC, which I promptly showed to him. I could clearly see the displeasure in his face, for if I had not had the NOC, he could have made the matters worse and pulled atleast 500/- from me. Now he comes back to his 100/-, saying that I was in grave danger of being hit by vehicles coming in the opposite direction, and as a lesson, I need to pay the 100/-.

I told him, that I shall pay 100/-, but on the condition that I need a challan for the payment. He did not like this idea, since this money would go to the government treasury and not into his pocket, so he asked me to wait, thinking that I would get frustrated and pay up. But I had other plans.

I parked the bike on the main stand, took out The Runaway Jury and started reading it. It was a hilarious scene, sitting on the sides of a busy road, reading a novel, with all the passerby’s watching me and having a good laugh at my expense. I was sure that the cops duty would end soon and he would be soon coming over to negotiate his price.

I was not disappointed, he came within 5 minutes and told me that I was a decent person, so on and so forth, and for that he told me to pay 50/- and leave. He handed me the bike keys. I still argued with him that 50/- was too much for me and I could not afford it. He kept reminding me of my “grave mistake”, and I never budged from my place. So he left again and I returned back to reading my book and providing amusement for passersby.

He returned after 10 minutes, I had covered 40 odd pages of the book, and this time he told me to pay 20/- and told me about his poor plight, the hard work that he puts in and the meager pay that he gets for all this. After listening to all this, I finally gave up and pulled out 20/- from my wallet. He thanked me and left me.

I was left wondering at the plight of the poor man, the amount of work he puts in, the meager pay that he gets, the mouths that he has to feed at home, and on and on. I did not feel bad for paying 20/-; for it was the first time I was paying a bribe.

Anyway, at the end of the day I was left cursing my own fate. The babe who took the U-Turn was not caught. Then while I was waiting, the cop caught a guy, who had crossed the red signal; he was let off since he was the yoga teacher in the police academy. Compared to those two, I had not broken any law, I was about to take the U-Turn when the cop caught me. I would never have attempted the U-Turn, if there had been proper signposts. But then who is to blame???? I wasted some 45 minutes on the roadside and also ended up paying 20/-.

It happens only in India!!!!!