The Indian Diplomacy

This has nothing to do with the bungling done in recent past by our celebrated diplomats abroad. No I am referring to the day to day diplomacy, which we street smart Indians employee, with much better elegance than our appointed diplomats.

I have been driving my bike around in Delhi for abt 6 months now. Those who drive will agree with me that when you are at a new place identifying red lights are most difficult. Especially in our country when half the time they don’t even work. Thus jumping the red light is the most common transgression committed by a driver in India. Hence I must be pardoned for getting caught violating this simple law 3times already. The first two times it happened around CP (Connought Place) which for me has become the most confusing round-about in the world. I had no idea where the red lights were and was actually more concerned about finding my way tat I became easy prey for the scary Delhi Police. On both these occasions I escaped paying a simple fine.

The third time I got caught was on my regular route, during my journey back to home from office. From a distance I saw that the green light had started blinking. It turned yellow by the time I crossed the zebra lines. As my bike doesn’t have a reverse gear and seeing cars which have reverse gears still proceeding I also decided to take the plunge. As I just passed the crossing the lights turned red and there waiting with open arms were the cops. Naturally I was the only driver to be pulled up. The reason I was the last to cross after the light became yellow. My argument that shouldn’t the first person be pulled up cause he tempted the others to follow suit apparently fell on deaf ears. They checked my license and other papers while I continued my argument about the light being still yellow doesn’t mean you should stop etc. Finally fed up with my arguments, and possibly after hearing quite a lot of English words being interspersed with my still fragile Hindi, they asked what I was doing. The response I got when I told my companies name is something that I have seen many times in various places of North India - respect.

Till then I was the one calling them sir but all of a sudden the power formulae changed. The officer who caught me had a relative in the outskirts of delhi who required a gas connection. Seeing an opportunity in me he changed his stand bringing in the street smart diplomacy I was talking about. I assured him I will do all I can after he took my number and confirmed I dint give him a fake one by giving a missed call immediately. I went scot-free but my joy was soon overcome with the prospect of explaining to my boss about helping out some random person living in some far flung area.

Fortunately it’s been some months now and I am yet to receive any calls from the person. So hopefully his gas issues got resolved without my intervention. But it does make you wonder whether the IFS officers need to be trained on how to be street smart by these experienced diplomats.

Stalked By a Dog

This is an incident that happened to me during the initial months of my stay in Delhi. During that time I was put up at my company’s guest house in Noida. I was in sector 15A which falls right at the border with Delhi. I had some friends putting up at the Delhi side of the border at a place called Mayur Vihar. It was about 5kms from my place n I used to regularly take rickshaws to visit them.

The period was about November and my first winter in Delhi was setting in. The climate was very pleasant and so after visiting them in the evening I decided to walk back to my place. It was around 8 PM at night and since it was a Sunday the road was pretty deserted which is strange considering the fact that it’s the main connection between Delhi and Noida.

Now those who have visited this are would testify to the fact that after humans the most common living things in this neighborhood are cows and dogs. These creatures have been left stray by their owners after their utility expired. But they are domesticated and tend to be close to passersby who may remind them of their erstwhile owners. As I was walking back I saw a dog coming in the opposite direction. Now I have always been afraid of dogs and so slightly stepped aside to let is pass before proceeding. But after going ahead a few steps I realized that I wasn’t walking alone anymore. The dog was coming after me following my pace. I stopped again and let it go ahead. After going ahead a few paces it stopped and then lay down. Happy that it’s found its sweet spot I continued on my way only to realize that it’s also started. Being a cynophobic as I already mentioned, I got into a panic. Not knowing what to do I picked up my pace only to find the dog also get into his stride. When I reached a slightly busy junction I crossed the road hoping to loose but found the dog was with me when I reached the other side.

I realized that I had to find a faster way of transport and a human pulled rickshaw wont work. I continued walking praying an auto will come by. My prayers were soon answered and I jumped into the first auto that came my way agreeing to pay him the unreasonably high rate esp considering that more than half the distance was already covered. But my priority for the moment was to escape my “Stalker”.

I reached home safe with all body parts intact only with a much lighter wallet. My last sight was that of the animal running behind the auto with his tongue hanging out as it panted. But after reaching home I felt very bad for the animal though. He must have picked up my scent which reminded him of his old master; the animal seemed to be of a good breed and not a common mongrel. I felt I should have treated the creature better esp since I consider myself a nature lover. Next time I went to my frnds place I was looking out for the animal hoping to find it. I never did.

Getting over my Writers Block

Well it’s been a very long time since I put up something here. To be exact my last post was on 28th March 2008, Friday. I guess it’s just a coincidence tat I decided to come out of my writers block n start posting here on yet another Friday more than 17 months later. Many a times during this period of inactivity I got the urge to start up something here. But I never got beyond that urge. This urge never materialized. This got me thinking. What could be the reason that after making about 10 posts in less than a month I was unable to come up with even a single paragraph for more than a year? Either the world had gone terribly boring or I was no longer interested in the hap hazard state of its affairs. What ever is the reason I hope I am over that phase and will be able to become a regular here. Your remarks in the forms of comment would be a great welcome. Bless me in my second innings here. Cheers :D